GUATEMALA – At least eight women have been killed in Guatemala over the past 24 hours, among them four minors, according to reports released Sunday by the security forces and emergency aid bodies.

According to the Volunteer Firefighters, four teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17, and who have not yet been identified, were shot to death on Saturday at different locations around the southern periphery of the capital.

The bodies of two of them were found in Villa Canales, another one in Barcenas and the fourth in Villa Nuevas. The four young women all had multiple bullet wounds and showed other signs of violence.

In a residential neighborhood in the western part of the capital another 35-year-old woman, identified as Lesbia Hernandez, was shot to death by a man who came into her business allegedly intent on robbing her.

In an isolated part of the town of Flores Costa Cuca, about 230 kilometers (143 miles) west of the capital, authorities found the bodies of Odilia Vasquez, 43, and her daughter Victoria Alonso, 23.

According to the report on the matter by the National Civil Police, both women were local residents and were shot to death by unknown killers.

The body of the eighth victim, a 20-year-old woman, was found in the town of San Antonio Aguas Calientes, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) northeast of the capital.

Firefighters reported that the woman had her hands and feet bound and had been shot several times in different parts of her body.

According to government figures, so far in 2011 there have been 127 murders of women nationwide in this Central American country, and most of those killings remain unsolved.