A massacre at a teenager’s coming-of-age party has killed at least 11 people in southern Mexico.
The Daily Mail reports that the victims were all gunned down following a ‘problem’ at the 15-year-old’s party, which officials have refused to elaborate on.
The shooting happened last Friday at a ‘quinceanera’ celebration in the state of Guerrero, not far from the border with Michoacan, where drug-related crimes, including murders, are tragically a regular occurrence.
Hector Astudillo, the state’s governor, said:
There was a problem at a 15th birthday party, and according to the information we have, 11 people were killed.
Guerrero, which is one of the poorest states in Mexico, has seen a huge increase in drug-related crimes.
In September 2014, 43 students in Southern Guerrero disappeared after being attacked by municipal police and delivered to a drug cartel which then allegedly killed them.
The massacre comes just weeks after troops and police announced they were searching for up to 17 people who were abducted by gunmen as they headed to a wedding in nearby Acapulco.
An official for Guerrero state security told AFP on condition of anonymity that 10 people were reported missing following Saturday’s mass abduction in the municipality of Arcelia.
However, Mayor Adolfo Torales said the gunmen took away 17 men after stopping a group of families in cars in the community of El Salitre in the late afternoon.
Speaking to Radio Formula, he said:
They took just the men, leaving the women and children.
Torales claimed that the gunmen accused the men of being members of a drug cartel known as ‘La Familia Michoacana’.
But the mayor said the missing are ‘totally innocent’ people, among them ‘blacksmiths, shopkeepers, farmers. They’re very poor people’.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.