Slumdogs watch videos of a local boy being shot dead "just for kicks”.

And tourists get kidnapped for cash booties because it’s easier than robbing a bank.

It is Caracas – the crime-ridden capital of Venezuela in South America – that was last month branded the most dangerous city in the world for its homicide rate.

The Mexico Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice estimated that for every 100,000 residents, 120 people are killed.

The oil-rich city has leapfrogged over San Pedro Sula in Honduras that topped the tables the previous three years.

"It is the most hellish place on Earth. You never want to go back there,” said Irish father-of-two Paul Keany.

The 53-year-old was locked up after being caught at Caracas airport in October 2008 when he agreed to smuggle 6kg in cocaine in a suitcase into Ireland.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Online, he recalled the horror tales he heard and witnessed during his two years in the notorious Los Teques jail – where 500 prisoners died and 2,000 were injured in 2011 alone.

The Dubliner, who says he was raped by a customs official after his arrest, was only inside for a couple of hours when a prisoner was blown up.

He said: "He just had a grenade in his pocket and a clip in his belt. It’s the way they show off.

"He must have slipped on it and pulled the pin out and blown himself to bits.

"They (the guards) come down with a wheelbarrow and picked up all his bits but we had to walk through all his blood and gore when we went to get dinner in the canteen. They don’t give a f***.”

On another occasion he said prisoners decapitated a man – thought to be a jail snitch – by firing machine gun bullets at his neck and played five-aside football with his head.

"It was horrific,” said Paul.

"But as the months went on the abnormal becomes normal.”

Paul, who was twice held at gun point and searched by the corrupt national guard in Caracas city, added: "The gangs in the city operate much in the same way as they do in the prisons.

"One guy was shot through the head for his watermelon he was carrying on his shoulder. The lad would not give it to him so he shot him straight through the watermelon and through the brain.”

Paul was close to having a boxing match with a prisoner who shot seven people purely because they witnessed his £100 robbery in a chemist.

"The cops bring drugs to the prisoners and the army bring guns,” said Paul, who escaped his parole and is back in Ireland.

"It’s for the money because they get f*** all pay.”

British ex-convict Oliver Vella, also imprisoned in Los Teques for trying to smuggle 4kg of cocaine in a suitcase, has previously told Daily Star Online tales of inmates cutting a man’s head off, ripping out his guts and shoving his head in his stomach.The 31-year-old was luckily set free but the thugs shot at his feet as they drove away.

He told Daily Star Online: "This would be the scariest or the second scariest moment in my life.”

Fatal political protest riots have plagued Caracas since the days of president Hugo Chavez who has been blamed for food shortages that still blight the population.

"The difference with Venezuela and other gang culture around the world is the lack of resources,” said Marcello.

"People wake up at 4am or 5am in order to get in line just buy toilet paper and basic food. Most of the people who wait in these lines end up getting nothing.”

(dailystar.co.uk)