Murder and terrorism charges have been dropped against Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez according to reports coming out of the South American country on Wednesday.

The government did charge Lopez with conspiracy and arson, charges which could land him in prison for 10 years if they are upheld in court.

Wednesday night's hearing was originally supposed to take place in a Caracas courtroom, but the government moved to have the proceedings take place in the prison where Lopez is being held. Lopez's legal team objected, and the hearing ended up taking place on a bus parked outside the prison, according to CNN.

The protests intensified on Thursday with thousands of protesters taking to the streets. There were more clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces reported, as well as numerous cases of protesters burning tires and even setting fire to vehicles. There were also Molotov cocktails being hurled at the police, and demonstrators reported gunfire from the government forces. Tear gas was also used in an attempt to disperse crowds.

"I heard a bunch of shots and hit the ground," one protester, Leonardo Velasco, told reporters from the Wall Street Journal. "I was half blind, stumbling and running,"

The demonstrations, which began in early February but have grown more chaotic since the shootings of Feb. 12, have spread far and wide outside the capital city of Caracas.

On Wednesday night, tires and debris were set alight in the street in San Cristobal on the eastern edge of the country.

A 53-year-old banker going by the screen name of Alejocamacho uploaded photos of the events to CNN's iReport.

"Even though they are burning debris and blocking streets they are not trying to harm people," he told iReport. "It is not easy to express yourself in this country now ... There are so many problems we have to face everyday and there seems to be not a sincere attitude from the high government officials to rectify (them)."

In the central city of Valencia a local beauty queen was gunned down on Tuesday, raising the confirmed death toll to five from the most recent round of unrest in Venezuela.