Child among 10 people shot dead by gunmen in Mexico

Mexican authorities on Sunday said at least 10 people were killed in an attack by gunmen in the town of Tehuitzingo in the east-central state of Puebla.

The victims were six men, three women and a child, and all were shot in the early hours of Sunday, Puebla’s public security agency said in a statement. Federal ‌officials are investigating the case.

Of the 10 victims, six were members of a single family, and the other four were “workers,” said Puebla state prosecutor Idamis Pastor.

Nine people died at the scene from gunshot wounds and one woman died while being transported to the hospital, prosecutors said.

The motive for the crime was still unclear.

Soldiers, members of the National Guard and police officers were deployed to the scene, and the security agency said “operational actions will continue to preserve order and social peace in the state.”

Local authorities did not say whether there were any suspects in the killings.

In February, six people were killed in Huehuetlán El Grande, another city of Puebla state. Days later, three people died in Puebla’s capital after an attack on their vehicle.

Puebla Gov. Alejandro Armenta has yet to comment on the incident, which comes as Mexico prepares to co-host the World Cup beginning next month.

Central Mexico has recently recorded a surge in cartel violence, which has forced between 800 and 1,000 families to flee their homes.

Puebla has seen gruesome violence in recent years.

Last August, authorities found six severed heads along a road that links the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala. In 2024, authorities in Puebla said they found seven bodies with five of them decapitated and another completely dismembered — with a message on each corpse — in a car left in the middle of traffic on a main expressway.