GUATEMALA CITY – Five men were gunned down by unidentified assailants in a poor neighborhood in the northwestern section of the Guatemala City metro area, the fire department said Sunday.

The killings occurred Saturday night on the main street of Tierra Nueva I, a neighborhood in the city of Chinautla.

Three men were killed in a taxi that was waiting outside a store, where a fourth man was murdered.

The fifth man’s body was found 100 meters (about 325 feet) from the store.

The victims were all adults and investigators have not determined the motive for the murders.

An average of between 14 and 16 people per day, according to official figures, are murdered in Guatemala, making the Central American country one of the most violent places in Lain America.

The Mutual Support Group, or GAM, a non-governmental organization that monitors human rights in the country, said in its report for the first nine months of 2010 that lack of a comprehensive public safety policy was to blame for the violence.

A total of 2,396 murders occurred in Guatemala between January and September, the GAM said.

Another 1,296 people were wounded in violent incidents, the non-governmental organization said.

Some 85 percent of murders were committed using firearms, 5 percent involved knives and the rest involved strangulation and explosions, the GAM said.

Of the total murder victims, 312 were women and 20 were girls, the non-governmental organization said.