Tree crushes church in Nicaragua, kills 11

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Nov 21: A huge tree fell on a church in northern Nicaragua and killed 11 people, including a US missionary, Honduran police said.

Most of the victims of accident in the village of Lupuas in a remote region on the Nicaragua-Honduras border were Miskito Indians.

''What we know is that an immense tree fell on the church when a service was being celebrated and 11 people died,'' including one American and two Hondurans,'' said Rigoberto Gonzalez, a police officer in the Honduran town of Danli near the border.

He said the US missionary was from Alabama and that his body had been transferred to Honduras before being flown back to the United States.

Nicaraguan authorities were unable to confirm the accident in the border area, which is much more heavily populated on the Honduran side.

REUTERS