The guerrillas , who were armed with AK @-@ 47 rifles , presented themselves to the 10 passengers as friendly , saying they would summon help and bring water . They spoke in English , both to the survivors and among themselves . They told the passengers to congregate around a point a few metres from the wreckage ; when the survivors said that some of them were too badly injured to walk , the insurgents told the able @-@ bodied men to carry the others . The passengers were assembled into an area of about 10 square metres ( 110 sq ft ) . Standing roughly 15 metres ( 49 ft ) away , the cadres now raised their weapons . " You have taken our land , " one of them said . " Please don 't shoot us ! " one of the passengers cried , just before they were killed by a sustained burst of automatic gunfire .