At least 10 people were killed and nine injured in a Saturday shootout at a car rally in Baja California, the municipal government reported.
The attack occurred during an all-terrain car racing event in the San Vicente area of Ensenada, about two hours south of San Diego.
At around 2:18 p.m., authorities said people with long guns exited a gray van and began shooting at participants at a gas station, according to reports of 911 calls.
Municipal and state police, the Marines, the Fire Department and Mexican Red Cross, among other agencies, arrived at the scene.
Ensenada Mayor Armando Ayala Robles said state Attorney General Ricardo Ivan Carpio Sanchez commissioned a special group to investigate the shooting.
Videos posted to social media show people reacting in confusion and fleeing as shots are fired, along with bodies on the ground.
The director of the Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias (AFN Tijuana), citing unofficial sources, reported on Twitter that the massacre was “due to a ‘fight’ between the CJNG (cartel) and the Sinaloa cartel.”
Organizers of the two-day event, Cachanillazo, which was to conclude Saturday, posted a message to their Instagram account expressing sympathy to those affected by the tragedy, adding that “unfortunately, what happened during the tour was not in our hands.”
“We are as baffled as all of you since we have nothing to do with what happened,” they concluded.
– Reuters and staff reports