Five shot dead in Mexico music fest
Playa del Carmen (mexico): A shooting erupted during an electronic music festival at a Mexican beach resort, leaving five people dead, including one in a stampede as revellers fled in panic.
Fifteen other people were injured in the melee after a gunman opened fire on security guards preventing him from entering the Blue Parrot nightclub during the BPM festival in Playa del Carmen, the Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
According to the state’s governor Roberto Borge the gunfire stemmed from “a personal conflict” between two individuals, which “involved the intervention of security guards.”
So far three of the dead have been identified: the Canadian Kirk Wilson, the Italian Daniel Pessina and the Mexican Rafael Penaloza Vega.
Mexican authorities confirmed that an American citizen was among the dead, the US embassy in Mexico announced on Twitter.
The shooting sowed terror in a part of Mexico that has been largely spared from the drug violence afflicting other parts of the country.
Playa del Carmen and nearby Cancun are in a Caribbean region known as the Mayan Riviera, which is popular among American and European tourists.
“We suddenly had to jump over the metal security barriers because they were shooting. It was horrible. We were very scared,” Eric Alvarez, a 40-year-old Mexican DJ, said outside the club, which has a blue parrot painted on the facade.
“A lot of people were panicking,” said Alvarez, who lost his prosthetic teeth while fleeing.
The Italian man was shot dead while another man died from bullet wounds at a hospital, according to local prosecutors. A woman was trampled to death.
“Witnesses said that a person tried to enter the establishment with a weapon but was blocked by security guards, triggering the attack,” said the statement from Pech’s office.
Prosecutor Miguel Angel Pech said two people – security guards – had fired back at the assailant.
Four people were detained near the scene of the crime and authorities are investigating if they were connected to the shooting, he added.
Rashed Qassem, a Lebanese events promoter who lives in the United States, said he was sitting at a table near the club’s exit when the shooting started.
“We thought it was fireworks placed in the club. Then we realised that someone had entered through the exit door and had begun shooting,” Qassem said. — AFP