Gunmen killed 19 people  at Michoacan state in Mexico

At least Nineteen people were shot and killed in central Mexico on Sunday, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement.

Authorities were dispatched to the scene of Las Tinajas in Michoacan state around 10:30 p.m. (0430 GMT Monday) after reports of an attack on a festive gathering.

“The FGE discovered 19 lifeless bodies (16 men and three women) with gunshot wounds,” the FGE added.

Several others were injured and had been sent to hospital,

Federal authorities are working “with the aim of capturing those responsible for the violent acts,” the office of Michoacan’s secretary of public security said on Twitter.

But Michoacan and neighboring Guanajuato are two of Mexico’s most violent states, due to turf wars between rival gangs involved in drug trafficking and other illegal activities – including trade-in stolen fuel.

Last month, an armed attack in the state believed to be the result of a gang dispute was reported to have killed up to 17 people at a wake.

The attack was believed to be motivated by “revenge” by one cell of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel against another, deputy security minister Ricardo Mejia said.

The government said it was unable to confirm the death toll because no bodies were found, although DNA samples of 11 possible victims were collected at the site.

Earlier this month gunmen killed nine people in an attack on a house in central Mexico, in an “execution” of six men and three women that shook a middle-class area of the usually peaceful town of Atlixco.

Puebla state governor Miguel Barbosa said that the attack had been on “a place for the sale and distribution of drugs” and that the victims’ identities were unknown.