TOLUCA, Mexico (AP) — Armed, masked males set fireplace to a public market within the central Mexican metropolis of Toluca on Monday, killing 9 individuals, authorities stated.
Prosecutors stated the attackers arrived, opened fireplace, after which doused a part of the market with a flammable substance earlier than setting it on fireplace and fleeing.
Prosecutors stated in a press release they had been investigating personal safety guards for abandoning their posts on the time of the assault.
They stated three of the lifeless gave the impression to be underneath 18, however identifications had been nonetheless pending.
Nobody claimed accountability for the assault Monday in Toluca, about 60 kilometers ( 40 miles ) west of Mexico Metropolis. Toluca is a metropolis of just about one million inhabitants and is taken into account a part of the capital’s metropolitan space, with some residents commuting to the capital to work.
Fires at public markets in Mexico are sometimes set by gangs demanding safety funds from distributors, however some have additionally been set by distributors disputing the possession of areas inside the markets.
Prosecutors within the State of Mexico, the place Toluca is positioned, stated within the assertion that “one of many first strains of investigation is that occasions could have been associated to inside disputes over the possession of business areas” on the market.
The assault got here as prosecutors within the neighboring southern state of Guerrero confirmed that 4 taxi drivers had been shot dying, and not less than one of many automobiles set on fireplace, over the weekend in and across the state capital of Chilpancingo.
That metropolis was the scene of horrific drug gang violence in late June, when items of seven dismembered our bodies had been left on a downtown road, together with a threatening message from a gang.
Guerrero is the scene of a bloody turf warfare between the Familia Michoacana and several other different gangs, considered one of which is believed to be answerable for the killings in Chilpancingo.
Toluca was additionally set on edge final week by the invention of not less than two hacked-up our bodies, a nd indicators claiming accountability by the violent Familia Michoacana drug cartel.
The gang originated within the neighboring state of Michoacan within the early 2000s, and whereas it has been largely chased out of its residence state, it has discovered a brand new lease on life within the State of Mexico and neighboring Guerrero state.
The Familia Michoacana has turn out to be identified for finishing up ruthless, bloody ambushes of police in Mexico State and native residents in Guerrero.