Several others were wounded in the shooting last night in Irapuato in Guanajuato state, the municipal government said in a statement.

Children were among the victims of the “deplorable” attack, president Claudia Sheinbaum told her morning news conference, adding that authorities had launched an investigation.

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

Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed around 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing.

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

Guanajuato recorded more than 3,000 murders last year, the most of any Mexican state, according to official figures.