Twelve dead after gunmen opened fire in a bar in Irapuato

Unidentified gunmen have opened fire in a bar in the central Mexican city of Irapuato.

As a result, they killed 12 people, including six women, local authorities said, the second mass shooting in Guanajuato state in less than a month.

Three people were wounded in the Saturday evening attack in south of Irapuato, the city’s government said in a statement, adding that security officials were trying to track down the attackers.

A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear.

Guanajuato, a major manufacturing hub and production site for many of the world’s top carmakers, has been rocked in recent years by brutal wars between rival drug gangs.

On September 21, gunmen shot dead 10 people in an attack on a bar in the Guanajuato city of Tarimoro, about 96 km (60 miles) southeast of Irapuato.

Earlier this month, gunmen suspected of being linked to a drug gang killed 20 people, including a mayor, in an attack in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, local officials said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in late 2018 pledging to reduce Mexico’s record levels of gang violence, but he has had great difficulty getting the killings under control.