Cuba coastguard kills 4 in firefight with US-registered speedboat

Cuba’s coastguard shot dead four people and injured six others travelling in a US-registered speedboat in an exchange of fire off the Cuban coast on Wednesday, the interior ministry in Havana said.

The “illegal” Florida-registered boat was detected one nautical mile from Falcones Cay in Villa Clara province, the ministry said in a brief statement.

As a coastguard vessel approached to identify the boat “shots were fired from the boat”, injuring the commander of the Cuban vessel, the ministry added.

“As a result of the clash, at the time of this report, on the foreign side, four aggressors were killed and six others were wounded,” the ministry said, adding that the injured were evacuated and received medical aid.

The ministry said that it remained committed to “protecting its territorial waters”.

The firefight comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and the communist island, which lies just 160km (100 miles) across the Florida Straits.