SALAMANCA: Gunmen opened fire on football fans after a match in central Mexico, killing 11 people and injuring a dozen more in a region plagued by violence blamed on organized crime, local authorities said.

Armed men stormed into a community football ground after Sunday’s match in Salamanca, a small city of 160,000 people in Guanajuato state.

The city said 10 people died on the scene, and another later in hospital.

Twelve people were wounded, including a woman and a child.

Mayor Cesar Prieto urged the national government to help “restore peace, tranquility, and security” in his community, blaming the violence on organized crime groups.

“We are going through a grave moment, a serious social breakdown. There are criminal groups trying to subdue the authorities,” he said.

Also in Salamanca, four bags containing human remains were discovered on Saturday night, while in two nearby communities, six people were killed the same day.

Last week, there was a bomb threat at a Salamanca-based refinery of state oil company Pemex.

Guanajuato in central Mexico is a thriving industrial hub and home to several popular tourist destinations, but also the country’s deadliest state due to gang turf wars, according to official homicide statistics.

Much of the violence in Guanajuato is linked to conflict between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang, which engages in oil theft, and the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, one of the most powerful in the Latin American nation.

A manhunt was under way for the shooters.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said Mexico’s homicide rate in 2025 fell to its lowest level in a decade as a result of her administration’s security strategy.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2026