Seven killed in pool hall massacre in Honduran port city

TEGUCIGALPA — Seven people were killed Sunday night in the Honduran Caribbean port city of La Ceiba when gunmen burst into a pool hall and opened fire with high-caliber weapons, police said.

Maynor Mena, the local police chief, told the news media the attack was a “personal vendetta.”

The assailants were described as about 30 unknown persons who pulled up to the pool hall in several vehicles.

After killing six people who had been playing pool, the attackers entered an adjacent apartment where they killed a 15-year-old child. They also threw a grenade into the pool hall, but it failed to explode.

Honduras is listed in a 2010 United Nations report as having the world’s highest murder rate at 82 per 100,000 residents.