(Celaya) Seven people, including a child, were killed on Saturday by an armed group that broke into the water park in La Palma, in the state of Guanajuato (central Mexico), according to local authorities.
Police “arrived at the scene where they found shell casings and the bodies of three women, three men and a seven-year-old child. One person was also seriously injured,” the town hall of Cortazar, where the attack took place, said in a statement.
According to the aquatic center owner, quoted in the statement, “armed individuals” arrived around 4:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. EST) to “carry out the attack.”
The attackers walked directly towards a group of people, ransacked a business there and took away security cameras, authorities said.
A video published by the Debate Noticias news site shows victims on the ground amid clouds of smoke apparently linked to the gunfire, and several people running to take cover from the gunfire or join their families.
In the video, the man filming says that “there were gunshots, deaths in the water park […] hitmen arrived, about twenty”.
The aquatic center, consisting of gardens and swimming pools located near a university campus, was surrounded by the army and the state police, and an investigation was opened.
The attack happened on the last day of the spring school holidays.
Shootings have already taken place on some beaches in the Pacific and the Caribbean, but this is the first reported armed attack on a family leisure base.
The once prosperous industrial state of Guanajuato has become one of the most violent in Mexico, due to the war between the Jalisco Nueva Generacion (the most powerful in Mexico) and Santa Rosa de Lima cartels, which began operations in fuel theft.
Most of the attacks that have taken place in this region have taken place at night in bars or nightclubs, and have been attributed to settling scores between gangs.
Rehabilitation centers have also been attacked, notably in June and July 2020, killing 10 and 24 respectively.
Since December 2006 and the launch of a government campaign against drug trafficking, more than 350,000 murders have been recorded, most of them attributed to organized crime, according to official data.
