Tegucigalpa, Jul 1 (IANS/EFE): At least seven people - six men and a woman - were killed Sunday in a shootout involving two rival families in Colon, a province on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, an army spokesman said.

The shootout affected three villages in Colon in the early morning hours, Col. German Alfaro told reporters.

Three armed men apparently entered a pool hall in the village of Prieta and "shot three people who were playing without saying a word", Alfaro said.

The killings were triggered by "differences" between two unidentified families, Alfaro said.

The wave of violence in Honduras has left an average of 20 people dead a day, according to the Observatory of Violence of the National Autonomous University, which reported that 10,411 violent deaths, of which 7,172 were murders, occurred in the Central American country in 2012.

Honduras had a homicide rate of 85.5 per 100,000 inhabitants last year, with an average of 598 homicides monthly and 20 killings daily, the United Nations said.