Eleven shot dead in Cape Verde including two Spanish citizens - TV

Eleven people were shot dead in Cape Verde on Tuesday including eight soldiers, a local civilian and two Spanish citizens, state TV and police sources said.

Police stand guard on the road leading to the Spanish embassy in Praia, Cape Verde, April 26, 2016. REUTERS/Decio Barros

PRAIA: Eleven people were shot dead in Cape Verde on Tuesday including eight soldiers, a local civilian and two Spanish citizens, state TV and police sources said.

There were no immediate details of the killings, but authorities were due to hold a press conference.

Cape Verde's battle against gangs smuggling Latin American cocaine to Europe has led to a series of reprisal shootings, though it was not known whether the killings were drug-related.

The country has worked with Western law enforcement agencies in its fight, including the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration.

Authorities seized 280 kilograms of cocaine earlier this month in a bust in the Atlantic from a Brazil-registered fishing vessel as it prepared to transfer the drugs to a U.S.-flagged yacht.

Cape Verde is an Atlantic archipelago of 500,000 people.
(This story has been refiled to correct day of the week)

(Reporting by Julio Rodrigues, writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; editing by Ralph Boulton)

- Reuters