CELAYA (AFP) – Gunmen shot up stores in a mall in Mexico, killing eight people, authorities said.
The attack in the central state of Guanajuato happened in the town of Apaseo el Grande, in a busy commercial area with food and refreshment stands and a bus ticket office.
Two of the fatalities were firefighters and a third was a paramedic for the state health care system, officials said. Two other people were wounded.
No arrests were made.
Guanajuato is a thriving industrial hub and home to several popular tourist destinations, but it is also now considered Mexico’s most violent state.
On October 4, the bodies of 12 slain police officers were found in different areas of Salamanca, a town in Guanajuato.
Officials said violence in the state stems from a conflict between the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful in all of Mexico.
Gang-related violence has continued unabated after Mexico’s new president Claudia Sheinbaum took office on October 1.
She has ruled out declaring war on the cartels and instead proposed a strategy she described as being based on gathering intelligence to sap their operational capacity.
Sheinbaum also wants to carry on with her predecessor’s policy of attacking crime at its roots, with investment in social spending and crime prevention.
