Outrage at Angola actor shooting

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Angola's interior minister has expressed "indignation" after police shot dead two actors after mistaking them for real armed robbers.

They were carrying unloaded firearms as they filmed a scene in a rough suburb of the capital, Luanda.

Minister Roberto Leal Monteiro said a change of mentality was needed to stop such "undue use of firearms".

"We won't rest until police at all levels realise they are public servants," he told the Angolan media.

I shouted out: 'Please don't shoot, this is a movie' Film director Radical Ribeiro

There has been a recent spate of police shootings.

Last week, a street vendor, who turned out to be a policeman's wife, was killed.

On Tuesday, agents from the Economic Police shot and killed two traders at point-blank range in the sprawling Roque Santeiro market that overlooks Luanda's port.

Shoot to kill

Film director Radical Ribeiro said he was filming in the crime-ridden Sambizanga area of the capital when an elite unit roared up in a pick-up truck and opened fire without warning.

Mr Ribeiro said he thought the police might have mistaken the actors, who were carrying unloaded firearms, for real armed robbers.

"They went on shooting until I shouted out: 'Please don't shoot, this is a movie,'" he told the BBC's Portuguese Service.

He said the officers then stopped firing and raced off, without attending to the fatally wounded actors.

The incident happened as the interior minister was chairing an extended committee to discuss the escalating crime-rate in Luanda.

Correspondents say Angola's disparate police forces are perceived as a law unto themselves.