Pigeon argument leaves three dead

Four men were in the city of Setubal, south of Lisbon waiting for their homing pigeons to return have died.

While the men were waiting an argument began over an illegal vegetable patch. Police are not sure what happened next, but it appears that one of the men fatally shot the other three and then turned the gun on to himself, committing suicide.

Andreia Gonclaves, the police commissioner of the city of Setubal confirmed there was a dispute between four men aged between 30 and 60 and that one of them had killed himself after shooting the other three.

She said the deaths were “an isolated incident” related to an unsolved issue between the men. The four men were participating in a pigeon race, but their disagreement was to do with an illegal vegetable patch.

There are restrictive gun laws in Portugal, but guns are legal for hunting purposes. According to police statistics of around the 80 or so annual killings that have been registered in Portugal since 2015, around a fifth are committed using firearms.

The city of Setubal was one of the most important centres of the fishing industry particularly the processing and exportation of sardines.