Five human heads found hanging at picturesque beach

Five human heads were found hanging from ropes at a beach in Ecuador as the country suffers a wave of violence related to drug trafficking.

The heads were located on a picturesque beach in Puerto Lopez, in the southwest of the country, with police attributing the incidents to a conflict between criminal groups. Drug-trafficking networks with links to transnational cartels are active in the area and have used fishermen and their small boats for their illicit activities, according to authorities.

Images published by Ecuadorian media outlets showed a warning sign next to the heads directed at alleged extortionists of fishermen in the small fishing port of Puerto Lopez. The ropes were fixed to wooden poles on the beach.

Fighting over territory and control of drug-trafficking routes has triggered violent episodes across the Manabi province, where Puerto Lopez is located. Police said that they had carried out control and surveillance operations in Puerto Lopez amid an ongoing state of emergency enforced in nine of the country's 24 provinces, including Manabi.

The state of emergency was imposed with the aim of containing the spiral of violence, especially in coastal areas - which it has failed to do - and restricts certain civil rights. Read more from Sky News:Human remains found as Australia battles firesPrince positioning himself as key figure in Iran Police controls in Puerto Lopez increased after a massacre left six people dead two weeks ago.

A second armed attack three days later left the same number of dead in Manta, also in the province of Manabi. Those controls failed to prevent this latest gruesome incident.

Last year was Ecuador's most violent year on record, with more than 9,000 murders according to official figures, surpassing the previous 2023 record of 8,248 killings. The UK's foreign office advises against all but essential travel in Ecuador's Manabi and six other coastal regions.

They also advise against all but essential travel to most areas within 12.4 miles (20km) of the Ecuador-Colombia border. In October, the Ecuadorian government claimed there had been an assassination attempt against the president when a group of 500 people attacked his convoy..