17/04/2009

Irish Man Killed In Bolivian Shoot-Out

An Irish citizen is feared dead in South America after an apparent gun battle involving anti-kidnap police.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is investigating reports that he was killed in Bolivia yesterday during a police operation.

This initiative foiled an alleged plot to assassinate the country's President Evo Morales.

Three men belonging to a group that allegedly included gunmen from Ireland, Hungary and Croatia, died in a 30-minute gun battle with police, Bolivian government officials said yesterday.

Police had attempted to arrest the men in the centre of Santa Cruz, an eastern Bolivian city and hub of anti-Morales sentiment, but they fled to a hotel where a shootout took place about 4.00am, witnesses and police said.

The men detonated a grenade inside the hotel, blowing out its windows amid the gunfight, according to police.

Three of the suspects, identified by state media as Irish, Hungarian, and Bolivian, were killed.

To seek more details, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin has contacted the Irish consulate in La Paz.

That office is currently attempting to confirm the reports.

Police also raided a storage facility in a nearby park, confiscating explosives, high-calibre telescopic weapons and what appeared to be travel plans for Mr Morales' motorcade.

(BMcC/JM)

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