Heavily Armed Gunmen Kill 11 Including 3 Children In Guyana

Georgetown, Guyana (AHN) - Gunmen went on a rampage early Saturday in a village east of Guyana's capital city of Georgetown killing 11 people including three children, police said.

The heavily armed gunmen stormed the village after staging an assault on the nation's police headquarters.

In what is considered to be the worst mass killing in the South American country in more than three decades, gunmen randomly chose and kicked in the doors of houses in Lusignan, located about 10 miles (16 km) east of Georgetown, and fired at the residents.

"They didn't come here to rob, they came here to slaughter," a resident, Jag Singh, told AFP.

The reports said the police arrived an hour after the incident even though the police station located about four miles east of Lusignan, which is also a stronghold of the governing Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC).

The authorities have accused the attacks as being led by a most wanted criminal in Guyana, Rondell Rawlins.

According to BBC, police claim that Rawlins has blamed Guyanese security officials for kidnapping his pregnant girlfriend. Rawlins had also warned that he would launch attacks until they return his girlfriend.

Rawlins is the head of a criminal gang since 1999 that has more than a dozen heavily armed men involved in urban warfare.

The brutal attacks here condemned by Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo.

"(This) could not have been done by human beings, but rather by animals," Jagdeo said, the BBC reported.

Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) was elected in 2006 and the polls are reported as the first peaceful election in the nation's history.

Before the recent election, the country experienced civil riots and tensions between the Indian majority and Afro-Guyanese.