A group of armed attackers on Sunday carried out a massacre at a soccer match in the Mexican town of Salamanca, Guanajuato, killing 11 and leaving 12 injured.
The Mexican newspaper El Universal reports that the massacre occurred at the at a soccer field in the Salamanca community of Loma de Flores when a group of armed men stormed the field during a match and opened fire against those attending the sporting event.
Mayor of Salamanca César Prieto Gallardo detailed that ten of the victims died on the spot and the eleventh died while receiving medical attention at a hospital.
The Argentine outlet Infobae, citing information from the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Guanajuato, reported that a woman and a minor child were among the 12 injured, six of which “are still under medical observation.”
Mexico’s Milenio reports that the attackers arrived at the soccer field in at least three trucks at 05:30 p.m. (local time) and opened fire, regardless of the presence of minors. Some of the attendees managed to flee from the scene and take refugee from the gunfire, while the wounded and the bodies of those killed remained on the soccer field.
At the scene, experts from the State Attorney General’s Office have secured more than 100 spent shell casings from “high-powered weapons.” The investigation is ongoing at press time.
Milenio noted that Sunday’s events follow a string of violent incident recorded in Salamanca over the weekend, and detailed that, on Saturday afternoon, various incidents left five men dead and one arrested in the communities of Cuatro de Altamira and Uruétaro. Hours later, around 07:00 p.m. (local time), four bags containing human remains were abandoned in the community of San Antonio de Flores.
“This incident adds to a wave of violence that we are unfortunately experiencing in the state, particularly in Salamanca,” mayor Prieto Gallardo reportedly said, and urged Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Guanajuato Governor Libia García for support in “restoring peace, tranquility, and security” to the Salamanca municipality.
The Mexican state of Guanajuato is widely consistently to be one of the most dangerous areas in the country. The U.S. State Department has an active “Level 3” Travel Advisory urging U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to Guanajuato due to terrorism and crime — noting a “risk of violence in the state from terrorist groups, cartels, gangs and criminal organizations.”
“Gang violence in Guanajuato mostly happens in the southern and central areas. It is often connected to the theft of oil and natural gas from the state oil company and other suppliers,” the Travel Advisory read. “There is a high number of murders in the southern region due to cartel-related violence.”
Last week, an explosive device with “threatening messages” was found at the gates of a state-owned company Pemex refinery in Salamanca. A special Mexican military team secured the explosive device and safely destroyed it.
