Armed men have killed a candidate in Guinea Bissau’s presidential elections, reports say.

Baciro Dabo’s security chief told the AFP news agency that men in uniform had burst into his house in the early hours and demanded to see the candidate.

The 28 June election was called after President Joao Bernardo Vieira was killed by soldiers in March.

Guinea Bissau has been plagued by instability and coups since independence in 1975.

Security chief Mamadou Saliou Djalo told AFP that Mr Dabo, 50, had been shot several times.

AFP reports that Mr Dabo, a former minister, was a member of the ruling PAIGC party but was contesting the election as an independent.

Mr Vieira was hacked to death with machetes on 2 March by soldiers who blamed him for a bomb which had killed the army chief of staff hours earlier.

In recent years, Guinea Bissau has become a major hub in trafficking cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

Source: BBC