As many as 11 people were killed yesterday in armed attacks on two public transport buses in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula that may have been the work of youth gangs, security officials said.
Another 17 people were wounded, many of them seriously, hospital officials said.
"In one of the cases, the bus was diverted from its route apparently so it could be attacked. Men opened fire
indiscriminately, killing six people," the city's police chief, Mr Jose Munoz, told reporters by telephone.
He said the assailants killed another person as they fled the scene, while the rest of the victims died in a drive-by shooting of a bus in another district of the northern city, the country's second largest.
Mr Armando Calidonio, the deputy security minister, told radio stations that the killings were probably carried out by youth gangs known as "maras" who are responsible for a recent wave of violence in the poor Central American nation.
He said the attacks could be an effort by gang members to show they are still active despite a nationwide police crackdown.