Spain confirmed that the two men killed in Madrid on February 26 were Bulgarians. This was announced by a spokesman of the Bulgarian foreign ministry on Tuesday. He explained the initial confusion about the victims' nationality with the fact that they had been using false Slovak passports.

After disclosing their real identity, Spanish authorities said Bulgarians Ivan Dokatanov, 49, and Nikolay Gatev, 29, were the victims of the killing. Police in Madrid said they were probably involved in a criminal ring.

The men were identified thanks to a fingerprint expertise and Interpol databases.

Ivan Dokatanov was born in a village near the Bulgarian town of Pazardzhik. He has criminal record and in 1989, he was sentenced to five years in prison for theft. Since April 22 this year he was declared missing and announced for international search by Interpol. Nikolay Gatev was born in Pleven. He does not have criminal record in Bulgaria.

The killing that looked as mafia vengeance got onto the pages of Spanish newspapers but only El Mundo report said the dead men were Bulgarians.

Spanish news agency EFE gave detailed description of the killing but also said the victims were Slovaks.

According to EFE, two assaulters with machine guns sprayed 50 to 100 bullets into Alexander M. and Kuzma B. who were changing the tyre of an Audi A3 in a posh Madrid quarter.

On February 27, the Bulgarian News Agency circulated El Mundo's report that said men with the same names aged between 25 and 28 were killed in a shooting.