At least 16 people were killed and dozens hurt Friday in armed clashes that erupted when police tried to evict landless peasant farmers squatting a privately-owned farm in Paraguay, officials said.

Interior Minister Carlos Filizzola told reporters that seven police officers and at least nine peasants died in the incident in Curuguaty, located 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of the capital Asuncion.

Another official in Curuguaty said as many as 80 people had been injured in the melee, some of them seriously. Earlier, the death toll had been put at six.

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"The peasants have high-caliber weapons like M16 rifles," local police official Walter Gomez told television network 13.

Gomez said some of the 150 peasants involved in the incident "handled weapons very well." "They shot cleanly to kill us. This is a critical situation," he said.