Venezuelans scrambling to find scarce toilet paper

Venezuelans scrambled to stock up on toilet paper on Thursday, after fears of a bathroom emergency spread despite the socialist government's promise to import 50 million rolls.

After years of economic dysfunction, the country has gotten used to shortages of medicines and basic food items like milk and sugar but the scarcity of bathroom tissue has caused unusual alarm.

70-year-old Maria Rojas said that she had been looking for toilet paper for two weeks, which she finally found it at a supermarket in downtown Caracas.

Thousands of rolls flew off the store's shelves as consumers streamed in and loaded up shopping carts Thursday morning, the New York Daily News reported.

Economists say the shortages stem from price controls intended to make basic goods available to the poorest citizens and the government's controls on foreign currency.

President Nicolas Maduro, who was selected by the dying Hugo Chavez to carry on his "Bolivarian revolution," claims that anti-government forces, including the private sector, are causing the shortages in an effort to destabilize the country.

The government this week announced it would import 760,000 tons of food and 50 million rolls of toilet paper.

Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming said "excessive demand" for tissue had built up due to a "media campaign that has been generated to disrupt the country.