Four men were shot dead by gunmen on the streets of Tegucigalpa on Friday, officials and witnesses said, just days after the president said homicide rates were decreasing in violence-wracked Honduras

Neighbors in the Honduran capital said the four men were talking on a street corner in a slum neighborhood when a car pulled up and at least six people emerged. Some of the men were shot at close range, witnesses told AFP.

The Honduran civil defense agency confirmed the killing, though a motive for the deaths was not known.

Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with one of the highest homicide rates, according to the United Nations.

President Juan Orlando Hernandez said this week the country had reduced its homicide rate from 86 to 66 per 100,000 people.

But he said "there is still a great deal to be done" against the illegal drug trade and gang violence.

Some 70 percent of Honduras's 8.6 million people live in poverty.