A jealous Portuguese villager shot dead his wife and two elderly neighbours then killed himself, emptying a tiny hamlet earmarked to become a tourist site, police and news reports said today.
The 60-year-old man killed his wife and a couple in their 70s on Friday afternoon in Sao Xisto, a village about 200 miles (300 km) north of Lisbon, Correio da Manha and Jornal de Noticias newspapers reported.
He then shot himself, they said. The man had suspected his wife was having an affair with the neighbouring man, the newspapers said, quoting area residents. A police spokesman in nearby Sao Joao da Pesqueira confirmed the killings.
"This is the devil's work," Atilia de Jesus, 63, a lifelong Sao Xisto resident, told Correio da Manha. Sao Xisto had only about half a dozen elderly residents before the shootings.
The remaining villagers plan to move away and leave it empty, the newspapers said. A local businessman had bought many of the houses in the town with a view to turning it into a tourist attraction and keeping residents on hand to explain its history, Jornal de Noticias newspaper said.