An arson attack on a bar in southern Mexico on Tuesday night has left at least 23 people dead while 13 were injured.
The attack at a bar Caballo Blanco bar in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, left eight women and 15 men dead.
State police say the attack may have been started by a petrol bomb, adding that they are investigating and searching for the attackers.
Governor of Veracruz, Cuitlahuac Garcia, said in a statement that the attack might be linked to a gang dispute.
The attack has renewed fear of the resumption of public violence, which ended during the 2006-2012 drug war.
‘In Veracruz, criminal gangs are no longer tolerated,’ Garcia wrote of the attack, adding police, the armed forces and newly formed National Guard are searching for the culprits.
‘The devious crime of a few moments ago in Coatzacoalcos will not go unpunished’, he continued in a tweet.
The state attorney general’s office condemned ‘what may constitute a malicious attack.’
The Los Angeles Times reports that Molotov cocktails were thrown into the bar, sparking the fire.
The attacked bar is located in a storefront along a busy commercial street in Coatzacoalcos, a city whose main industry has long been oil and oil refining.
Veracruz is one of the most violent regions of Mexico. Drug trafficking routes to the United States pass through it, and bloody battles frequently erupt between rival drug gangs.
