An Irishman has been shot dead in a Majorcan holiday resort in a suspected gangland killing.

The man was gunned down outside an empty supermarket in Costa de la Calma around 15 miles from the capital Palma just after 9pm on Wednesday evening.

Police are said to be hunting up to three assailants after the suspected gangland killing.

Attempts to revive the victim, said to be aged around 30, failed.

The shooting is being probed as a revenge killing and will inevitably lead to concerns it is related to the gangland feud between the Kinahan and Hutch families which has cost lives in Ireland and the Costa del Sol.

A bar owner, who asked not to be named, said: “I heard three shots but there were apparently four and then saw a man with a blue hoodie pulled tight over his face run by.

“I didn’t realise at first they were gunshots. I thought it was kids playing with firecrackers. But then I heard people screaming and people came rushing into the bar to seek refuge.

“The victim is dead and still on the pavement near my bar.

“I don’t know who he is.”

A spokesman for the Civil Guard was unable to confirm the nationality of the victim, although local reports said he was Irish and officers at the scene also described him as an Irishman.

Department of Foreign Affairs said they are aware of the shooting and they are providing consular assistance.

The spokesman said: “A man was shot in the back around 9.05 local time in a street in Costa de la Calma.

“Officers are still at the scene.

“The man or men responsible for shooting him fled.”

The Costa del Sol and Ireland has been rocked by a series of tit-for-tat killings blamed on feuding Irish gangs.

In February gangster David Byrne was shot dead at Dublin’s Regency Hotel during the the weigh-in of Jamie Kavanagh, the boxing pal of Irish godfather Christy Kinahan’s son Daniel.

Byrne, 32, was aligned to Christy Kinahan’s gang, nowadays said to be led by Daniel.

The shooting, which followed the September 2014 killing of Jamie’s gangster dad Gerard at a pub near Marbella, was seen as retaliation for the assassination in September last year of Gary Hutch in Miraflores near Fuengirola.

Gary’s uncle Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch has been blamed for ordering the hit on Byrne as part of an all-out war with the Kinahan gang.

His brother Eddie was shot dead three days after the Regency Hotel attack in a feud which one major criminal has warned would only end when Daniel Kinahan, who until recently lived in Marbella, was killed.

Christy and Daniel are now said to have relocated to Dubai to escape the threats to their lives.

Since Eddie Hutch’s killing on February 8 at his home, at least three murders in Ireland have been linked the gangland feud.

The Garda overtime budget to combat the deadly feud between the Kinahan mob and the Hutch gang was recently estimated to have rise to €90m.

Armed officers have staged more than 6,000 checkpoints in Dublin since David Byrne’s murder at the Regency Hotel.

Costa de la Calma, in the southwest of Majorca, is near Santa Ponsa which is a popular Irish holiday resort.

Online Editors