A shooting targeting a group of people gathered for a soccer game in the state of Guanajuato (central Mexico) left at least 11 dead and 12 wounded, according to authorities.
The incident occurred around 5:30 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. GMT) in the community of Loma de Flores, in the municipality of Salamanca, Guanajuato, in west-central Mexico.
The mayor of Salamanca, César Prieto, confirmed in a public statement that 11 people died—10 at the scene and one at the hospital—and 12 others were injured, including a woman and a minor.
Prieto explained that the shooting took place at the end of a sporting event on a soccer field, “where people were socializing when an armed group arrived and attacked them.”
“This incident adds to a wave of violence that we are unfortunately experiencing in the state, and particularly in Salamanca,” warned the mayor, while asking Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Guanajuato Governor Libia García for support in “restoring peace, tranquility, and security” to the municipality.
Authority actions and context of violence in Guanajuato
Violence in Guanajuato: 11 dead and 12 wounded in shooting during soccer game in Salamanca
Photo: EFE
Five people were murdered on Saturday in the community of Cuatro de Altamira, another in San Vicente de Flores, and last week a threat involving an explosive device was reported outside the Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) facilities in Salamanca, which was deactivated with the intervention of the federal government, Prieto recounted.
The mayor emphasized that Salamanca is a city that “has given much to the country,” as it houses a Pemex refinery and is a “driving force for development.”
In that regard, he lamented the existence of criminal groups seeking to “subjugate the authorities,” which, he warned, “they will not achieve.”
For its part, the Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office reported the start of investigations into the events and specified that six of the 12 injured remain under medical care.
Furthermore, the agency “strongly” condemned the attack and expressed its solidarity with the victims’ families.
Reports indicate that there are already more than 17 dead, according to local media reports with testimonies from family members, which has not been confirmed by the authorities.
This is not the first armed attack during a soccer match in Salamanca. In April 2025, an armed group stormed a field in the community of Cárdenas and killed four people, and a month earlier, three died after a shooting at a soccer field in Zapote Negro.
Furthermore, this is one of the worst massacres in recent years in Guanajuato, second only to the one that occurred in June 2025 in the municipality of Irapuato, where 12 people were killed and 20 injured in a shooting at a patron saint festival celebrating the feast day of Saint John the Baptist.
Guanajuato was the state with the most homicides in Mexico in 2025, with more than 2,500 cases registered, according to government data.
Source: udgtv
