10 killed at rehab centre in Mexico

Ten men were killed on Saturday when gunmen opened fire on a drugs rehabilitation centre in the Mexican city of Irapuato, the government of Guanajuato state said.

Guanajuato, a region in central Mexico, has become one of the principal flashpoints of surging gang violence which President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has promised to quell.

But despite lockdown measures imposed to combat the coronavirus outbreak, homicides continue to test record levels.

The state government said in a late Saturday statement that according to preliminary findings, three unidentified assailants shot up the rehab centre in Irapuato, an industrial hub south of the state capital, also named Guanajuato.

Meanwhile, police are also investigating the killing of three men shot dead in a separate attack on Saturday in the city of Celaya, the state government said.

Rehab centres have previously been targeted by criminal gangs waging turf wars for control of the drug business.

In September 2017, at least 14 people were killed and several wounded in an attack by suspected gangsters on a drug rehab centre in the northern city of Chihuahua.

The governor of a Mexican state recently roiled by clashes between security forces and demonstrators apologised on Saturday for abuses carried out by police against people protesting the against the death of a man in police custody.

Enrique Alfaro, governor of the western region of Jalisco, said he was appalled that police in Guadalajara had on Friday beaten some participants in a demonstration over the death of the man, Giovanni Lopez.

“It embarrasses me, it distresses me, it greatly pains me as a man from Jalisco, and as governor,” Alfaro said.

Floyd’s death helped drive demonstrations over the fate of Lopez, who died in police custody in Jalisco last month after reportedly being detained by municipal officers for not wearing a face mask to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus