Gunmen stormed a hospital in Mexico on Monday to attack a man who was recovering from a gunshot wound, killing him and two police officers, authorities said.
The attackers shot the man more than ten times in the central town of Atlixco, then killed police officers who tried to stop them from fleeing, the Puebla state public security secretariat said.
“The victim entered the hospital alone early Sunday morning because he had been shot during a rally,” Puebla Security Secretary Daniel Ivan Cruz said at a news conference.
“Early Monday morning, the person was killed by several men who entered the hospital,” he said.
“After hearing the emergency call and arriving at the scene, the police officers came under fire and died instantly,” he added.
Investigators were looking into whether the patient, aged around 30, was involved in illegal activities, the security secretariat said.
Atlixco, a popular tourist destination, receives thousands of visitors this time of year for the Day of the Dead festival.
CAMILLE AYRAL / REUTERS
Puebla has been plagued by brutal violence before. In April, state authorities found seven bodies with five of them decapitated and another completely dismembered – with a message on each corpse – in a car abandoned in the middle of traffic on a main highway. In 2022, authorities said gunmen were ‘executed’ nine people during an attack on a house in Atlixco.
The spiral of violence, largely linked to drug trafficking and gangs, has led to the deaths of more than 450,000 people in Mexico since 2006.
On Monday, gunmen killed five members of the same family in a house in the suburbs of Acapulco, a former seaside playground for the rich and famous, now ravaged by criminal violence, said prosecutors.
Two other people were injured in the attack in the southern state of Guerrero, which has seen years of bloodshed linked to internecine wars between drug cartels.
On Friday, a local leader of the popular Mexican cult “La Santa Muerte” was dejected on an altar with a skeletal figure. Two other people were killed and eight injured in the attack in the town of Leon, Guanajuato state.