Nine killed at teen birthday party in southern Mexico

Acapulco (Mexico), Feb 1: A teenager's 15th birthday party became the scene of a ghastly massacre in southern Mexico where nine people were fatally shot, including two minors, officials said today.

The shooting occurred Friday at a "quinceanera" coming-of-age celebration in the Mexican state of Guerrero, not far from the border with Michoacan, where drug-related crimes, including homicides, are a regular occurrence. Soldiers and police arriving on the scene were met with a hail of bullets, said Governor Hector Astudillo.

Once the gunfire died down, they found the dead bodies of two minors, whose ages were not given, and seven men ranging in age from 18 to 50-years-old. Astudillo initially gave a death toll of 11, but prosecutors later lowered it to nine.

No security force members were reported wounded. A woman was also killed when gunmen opened fire on a couple Sunday near the same municipality, Coyuca de Catalan, officials said.

The couple was driving toward the Pacific resort town of Zihuatanejo when they came under attack. The woman, 29, was badly wounded and later died in hospital. Like Michoacan, Guerrero, one of the poorest states in Mexico, has seen an explosion in drug-related abductions and homicides. Southern Guerrero is also where 43 students disappeared in September 2014, after being attacked by municipal police and delivered to a drug cartel, which allegedly killed them.

AFP