Mexican Authorities Searching For Gunmen Who Killed 12

Mexican authorities are on the hunt for gunmen accused of killing at least 12 people and injuring three more after opening fire inside a bar in central Mexico Saturday evening.

Reports of gunfire at the bar in the city of Irapuato in the central state of Guanajuato started around 8 p.m., the city’s Secretary of Citizen Safety said in a statement.

Paramedics confirmed the deaths of six men and six women after arriving on the scene, CNN reported. It remains unclear who the victims are and the exact number of gunmen involved in the shooting.

However, a search is underway to locate the attackers with support from Guanajuato’s Secretary for Public Safety, the state’s prosecutor general’s office, the Secretary of National Defense, and the National Guard.

Saturday’s attack marks the second mass shooting in less than a month in the state of Guanajuato, which has become convulsed in recent years by brutal turf wars between rival drug gangs, Reuters reported.

Guanajuato is a major manufacturing hub and production site for many top carmakers.

It is also attractive to drug cartels for the same reason it is to auto manufacturers: road and rail networks close to US borders.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has continued to struggle with gang violence solutions since taking office in late 2018, according to Reuters.

Although the number of homicides has fallen slightly this year, his term is on track to be the bloodiest in recent history.