Organized crime in Honduras left five new casualties Friday, a day after 28 people were killed on a bus on Thursday, said reports reaching in Managua.

Coffee producer Fernando Caceres was shot dead in downtown El Paraiso, a city in the eastern part of the country on the border with Nicaragua, by unknown individuals who stole a large amount of money from him, the National Police of Honduras said in the capital Tegucigalpa.

In another incident on Friday, four people, including two minors, were shot dead in San Pedro Sula city, 180 km north of Tegucigalpa,

The five deaths. suspected to be related to organized crime in Honduras, have jolted the nation, as they followed closely the slaughter of 28 passengers Thursday by a group of criminals in southern San Pedro Sula.

According to the Security Ministry, seven men stepped out of one or two vehicles that had stopped in front of the bus and started shooting at passengers.

Calling it "one of the most barbaric and cowardly acts in Honduran history," President Ricardo Maduro visited the stricken city overnight and ordered the government to pursue the gunmen.

The government has earmarked a large amount of money as a reward for finding the perpetrators of the slaughter.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2004)