Twenty people including three women were shot and killed in central Mexico on Sunday, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement.
The authorities did not immediately release a motive for the attack on Sunday evening that targeted a gathering in the town of Las Tinajas in Michoacan state. Local media reports said gunmen stormed a cockfighting pit and shot at the attendees.
Authorities were called to the scene at around 10:30 p.m. (0430 GMT Monday) following reports of an attack on a festive gathering in the town of Las Tinajas, Michoacan state.
“19 lifeless bodies were found (16 men and three women), who had gunshot wounds,” the FGE said.
Several others were injured and had been sent to hospital, it added.
Authorities did not give a reason for the shooting.
But Michoacan and neighboring Guanajuato are two of Mexico’s most violent states, due to turf wars between rival gangs involved in drug trafficking and other illegal activities — including trade in stolen fuel.
Mexico has been trapped in a spiral of cartel-related violence since 2006 when the government launched a controversial anti-drug operation with federal troops.
There have been more than 340,000 murders since then, most of them blamed on fighting between criminals, according to official figures.
“It was a massacre of one group by another,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference, expressing his regret at the deaths. He blamed criminal gangs for the shooting and said a team was dispatched to investigate the crime.
Officials said those killed included 17 men and three women.
Michoacan and neighbouring Guanajuato state have seen years of violence amid ongoing turf wars between rival gangs.
Last month, an attack during a wake in Michoacan, believed to be the result of a gang dispute, was reported to have killed up to 17 people. That attack was believed to be motivated by “revenge” by one cell of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel against another, deputy security minister Ricardo Mejia said. However, the government said it was unable to confirm the death toll because no bodies were found. DNA samples of 11 possible victims were collected at the site.
Michoacan is also the world’s biggest avocado-producing region. Threats against a plant inspector from the United States who worked there last month prompted Washington to suspend Mexican exports of the fruit for more than a week.