The incident is being described as an accident by police who confirmed that the Portuguese citizen had been shot accidentally by the guard.

According to the spokesman for the Luanda Provincial Command of the National Police, Nestor Goubel, the accident occurred on Thursday in the Kifica neighbourhood, an urban district of Benfica.

The security guard has already been detained by the police.

“He is a security guard of the company and it was his first day of employment, I don't know if it was down to inexperience, but everything indicates that it was an accident”, said the police spokesman in Luanda.

Nestor Goubel stressed that police are to gathering more information about the case, stressing that the initial explanation was that “after taking over from his colleague, he started to work and at a certain point decided that he should inspect the weapon, which, unluckily ended up being fired accidentally”.