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Bernd Debusmann JrWhite House reporter
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The incident took place near an island in Cuba's Villa Clara province, on its northern coast.
Four people on a US-registered speedboat were shot and killed after being intercepted in Cuban waters, Cuba's government said.
In a statement, Cuba's interior ministry said that the speedboat's passengers opened fire on a coast guard vessel that approached them.
Six additional passengers were wounded in the incident, which took place near an island on Cuba's northern coast.
The identity of those on board the vessel or what it was doing in the area are unclear, with the Cuban government saying an investigation has been launched to "clarify" the event.
In statement posted on X via the Cuban Embassy in the US, the Interior Ministry said that the Florida-registered vessel - with the registration number FL7726SH - was detected near Cayo Falcones, in the country's central Villa Clara province on Wednesday morning.
When a Cuban boat carrying five members of the ministry's border guard approached the vessel for identification, "the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire" and wounded the Cuban commander, the statement said.
"As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six injured," the statement added.
Those injured were evacuated and given medical assistance.
The BBC has contacted the US State Department and White House for comment.
Florida Representative Carlos Gimenez, a Cuban-American former mayor of Miami, said on X that he is demanding an "urgent" investigation into what he termed a "massacre", adding that US authorities "must determine whether any of the victims were US citizens or legal residents".
In a separate post, Gimenez added that the Cuban government "must be relegated to the dust bin of history".
The incident comes amid increased tensions between the US and Cuba, which is facing a deepening fuel crisis that has been worsened by the US blocking oil shipments from Venezuela, a long-standing ally in the region, to the island.
The Cuban statement alluded to these tensions, saying that "in the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect it territorial waters" and safeguard its sovereignty.
The incident also comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives in Saint Kitts and Nevis to meet with Caribbean leaders amid the Trump administration's push to ramp up pressure on Cuba's government, as well as other regional issues.
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