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World Americas

Mexico night club attack leaves 15 dead: prosecutor

Four others hurt in shooting



Image Credit: Screengrab

Mexico City: At least 15 men have died following a shooting at a nightclub in central Mexico, prosecutors said Saturday.

Another four people, three men and a woman, suffered injuries, public prosecutor's office spokesman Juan Jose Martinez told AFP by telephone.

Mexico night club attack leaves 15 dead. Four more men suffered injuries.

- Prosecutor

It was not immediately clear who committed the crime. Before sunrise, a group of armed men pulled up in three vans at the La Playa Men's Club in the city of Salamanca, burst into the premises and opened fire, local media reported.

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Powerful oil theft gangs have stolen vast quantities of fuel from Salamanca's oil refinery. This week President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched a major offensive to capture local gang leader Jose Antonio Yepez, known as El Marro." A video taken after the shooting from the street near the bar showed a line of police vehicles. A woman wailed uncontrollably in the background as an ambulance drove into the area.

Salamanca lies in Guanajuato state, part of the country's industrial heartland that was a magnet for carmakers such as Volkswagen AG, General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp, but it suffered a doubling of murders last year, making it one of Mexico's most violent regions, official data shows.

More than a decade after the launch of a militarized effort against drug cartels that has led to some of Mexico's bloodiest years on record, the latest effort will test the new government's ability to curtail the reach of organized crime.

Lopez Obrador took office on Dec. 1, vowing to fight crime in a new way.

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