Haitian Police on Thursday confirmed that at least 28 people – 26 Columbians and two Americans of Haitian origin – carried out the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, AFP reported. The country’s interim president earlier in the day said that the government is intensifying the manhunt to arrest those behind killing the leader at his private residence. 

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“We have arrested 15 Colombians and the two Americans of Haitian origin. Three Colombians have been killed while eight others are on the loose,” national police director-general Leon Charles said at a news conference, as per AFP. 

On Wednesday police said four of the suspects had been killed. Charles did not explain the discrepancy.

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The streets of the capital Port-au-Prince have been tense and shops, banks and gas stations closed, with no concrete information on who killed the president or why. The main airport was also closed, as was the border with the Dominican Republic.

United Nations envoy to Haiti, Helen La Lime, speaking from the Haitian capital, said four members of a group that attacked the president’s private residence early Wednesday and shot him dead have been killed by police and six others were in custody.

Charles said that the “weapons and materials used by the assailants have been recovered.”

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In a press briefing on Thursday afternoon when six men were arrested, interim President Claude Joseph had said that the actions cannot go unpunished.

“I am asking that the population hand over anyone they capture to the police because, if not, we won’t know what really happened,” the prime minister said. “We need to understand the motives of these people. We can’t let this action go unpunished,” he said, as per The Wall Street Journal.

National police director-general Leon Charles spoke a day after Moise and his wife Martine were attacked by gunmen at their private residence in the capital Port-au-Prince.

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Moise was shot dead in the early morning attack, and his wife was wounded. She has been taken to Miami by air ambulance and authorities have said her condition is stable.

The poorest country in the Americas now has no president or working parliament and two men claiming to be in charge as prime minister.

Charles vowed the hunt for the other alleged assassins would continue.

“We will strengthen our investigation and search techniques to intercept the other eight mercenaries,” he said.