Police in Mexico is investigating reports of a deadly attack on a wake in a town in western Michoacán state.
Footage shared by local media appears to show armed men lining a group of mourners up against a wall and shooting at them execution-style.
Investigators from the prosecutor’s office say that when they arrived at the scene they found bullet casings and cleaning materials but no bodies.
A search for possible victims of the shooting is underway.
Forensic experts said the crime scene appeared to “have just been cleaned” before their arrival but bullet holes in two cars and a motorcycle and multiple bullet casings were strewn across the road suggested a shooting had taken place.
Local security officials told journalists that they feared as many as 17 people could have been killed but the prosecutor’s office has not yet confirmed any deaths.
The video, which is said to have been taken by a next-door neighbor, shows a group of people who had been attending a wake at a private home, being made to stand up against a wall with their hands behind their heads.
A number of heavily armed men take a position in front of them, gunshots are heard ringing out and once the smoke from the gunfire dissipates, those who had been lined up against the wall can no longer be seen.
It is not the first time this year that a wake has become the scene of a deadly killing.
Earlier this month, a total of nine mourners were killed in Ciudad Juárez when gunmen targeted the wake of a man who had died in prison and then returned to shoot dead more people at the same man’s funeral.
Both the attack in Ciudad Juárez and Sunday’s shooting in Michoacán have been blamed on rivalries between local criminal gangs.
Source: OEM
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