Gunmen open fire on boat, throw passengers into sea

BELIZE CITY, Belize - Halfway through a commuter boat ride, three crew members suddenly opened fire on the captain and passengers, killing at least five people and throwing surviving women and children overboard, authorities said Thursday.

Three survivors said they spent 17 hours floating together in the Gulf of Honduras until a fisherman discovered them Thursday morning. Others drowned one by one as they waited for rescue.

''They just opened fire like nothing, like crazy. They just shot,'' said 21-year-old passenger Evelyn Rojas, describing the assault Wednesday on the boat ''Maria Estela,'' which had been taking passengers from Guatemala to Belize.

There was no known motive for the attack.

Carrying 10 passengers and a crew of five, the 28-foot skiff left Guatemala's Puerto Barrios on Wednesday afternoon for the normally uneventful trip through the Gulf of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea to Belize's Punta Gorda.

Less than an hour into the voyage, as the light craft neared Guatemala's maritime border, the three mutineers grabbed assault weapons they had hidden under boxes and turned them on the passengers, authorities and survivors said.

Five passengers apparently were shot dead immediately, Guatemalan Naval Capt. Jose Maria Valladres said Thursday.

Rojas said she jumped into the water and tried to swim as far from the boat as possible, grabbing a life jacket and hanging on amid a shower of bullets.

The assailants, meanwhile, shot other passengers and threw women, children and an elderly man overboard, she said.

The captain, Julio Requena Jr., jumped into the water after being shot, but the gunmen continued to fire on him in the water, said passenger Larry Smith, an American who has lived in Belize for 27 years.

Although Requena managed to avoid being shot again, not long after the assault ended he ''told us goodbye and disappeared into the water,'' Smith said.

Late Wednesday, a Belizean tour cruiser recovered the bodies of two Belizeans, a Honduran man and two Guatemalans, all of whom had been shot.

Aside from the three passengers who were rescued, the others aboard had not been accounted for, and authorities said some may be hostages aboard the boat, which was still missing. Belizean naval boats were searching for the assailants.

Although Guatemala and Belize have been locked in a border dispute since January, both sides agreed the attack was not politically motivated.