16 members of a family slaughtered in Honduras

Sixteen members of an extended family were killed today in a remote area in the eastern Honduran province of Olancho, a relative of the victims said.

The National Police have yet to confirm that the massacre took place, Security Ministry spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia said

Leonidas Carrasco told reporters that his daughter, Teodora, and her husband, Anastacio Almendarez, were slain along with a number of children.

One of Carrasco's grandchildren survived because he was not home at the time of the attack.

Regarding the motive for the bloodbath, Carrasco said it might have had something to do with a dispute over a land transaction.

The police chief in the municipality nearest to the scene of the purported massacre said he received "extra-official information" about the killings.

Catacamas police chief Eli Medina told the media, his office was advised that "there are 16 people dead, including some burned".