At least 15 people were killed and another seven wounded in a shooting at a nightclub early on Saturday (local time) in Mexico’s violence-wracked Guanajuato state, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
It was not immediately clear who committed the crime. Before sunrise, a group of armed men pulled up in three vans at the La Playa Men’s Club in the city of Salamanca, burst into the premises and opened fire, local media reported.
Powerful oil theft gangs have stolen vast quantities of fuel from Salamanca’s oil refinery. This week President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched a major offensive to capture local gang leader Jose Antonio Yepez, known as “El Marro.”
A video taken after the shooting from the street near the nightclub showed a line of police vehicles. A woman wailed uncontrollably in the background as an ambulance drove into the area.
According to a statement from the Guanajuato state prosecutor’s office, 13 men were found dead in the nightclub, and another two died after being taken to hospital. It added that its agents were investigating the crime.