Gunmen kill 17 in Mexico party slaughter

Gunmen armed with machine guns shot dead at least 17 party-goers yesterday, in a pre-dawn attack outside the northern Mexican city of Torreon, officials said.

Authorities said the heavily armed attackers also wounded 10 others as they sprayed bullets through a recreation centre in Coahuila state, near Mexico's northern border with the US. A source with the state police department said witnesses reported hearing members of the group yell "kill them all" before they opened fire.

The attack took place at around 1.30 a.m. (0630 GMT) at the recreation centre, a popular weekend retreat situated in a usually calm suburb among gardens and lakes. Authorities said they found more than 200 bullet casings fired from automatic weapons following the massacre. Officials said most of the shooting victims were in their 20s and 30s.

Yesterday's attack brings the number of shooting victims in Mexico to at least 50 over the weekend, most of them in the north of the country.

The brazen shooting was reminiscent of a similar attack in late January when hitmen working for a drug gang opened fire on 16 young partygoers in Mexico's Ciudad Juarez.