An arson attack on a casino in the northern Mexican industrial city of Monterrey sparked a massive fire and killed at least 53 people, the governor of the state of Nuevo Leon has said.
Governor Rodrigo Medina announced the grim toll in an interview with the Televisa network, adding that the vast establishment, the Casino Royale, had been set ablaze late on Thursday using some kind of flammable liquid “like gasoline”.
President Felipe Calderon condemned the attack, calling it an “abhorrent and barbaric act of terror” in a message on Twitter and expressing his solidarity with the people of Nuevo Leon, of which Monterrey is the capital.
“An unacceptable act of terror has been committed that will not go unpunished,” added national security spokesman Alejandro Poire.
Casinos in Monterrey have recently been targeted because some owners have refused to pay protection money demanded by criminal gangs linked to the country’s booming drugs trade, local media have reported.
For more than a year Monterrey has been the epicenter of a battle between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, two powerful drug smuggling groups vying for control of the lucrative routes north to the United States.
Medina said the attack was carried out by six men who arrived at the casino in two vehicles around 4 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Thursday.
Some men entered the casino “and screamed out ‘everyone hit the floor’,” a witness who spoke on condition of anonymity told Mexican media.
“I don’t know if there was a weapon that makes such a noise, but an impressive explosion followed – I never want to go through something like that again,” said the witness, who fled to the rooftop with a friend to escape the flames.
The state head of civil protection, Jorge Camacho, said that the death toll was so high because many people hid in bathrooms and offices when they heard the explosions instead of heading to the emergency exits.
They were trapped by the flames, and many died of smoke inhalation, he said.
It took firefighters four hours to control the flames, and Medina warned that more bodies could be found inside the casino.