Thirteen youngsters died and 20 were wounded in the world's most crime-ridden city of Ciudad Juarez in northern Mexico, when a group of gunmen entered a house where a party was underway in the early hours of Sunday and opened fire, a local police official said.
The official said the dead were aged from 15 to 20. An investigation is underway, he added.
Local media quoted witnesses as saying the gunmen arrived at the house driving seven 4x4s and blocked the road before entering the building.
Media reports said the attackers were members of a local drug cartel. The attack is believed to be an act of revenge.
Ciudad Juarez is located in Mexico's northern state of Chihuahua bordering the U.S. Some 100 people were reportedly killed in the city in the first ten days of 2010, while a total of 2,635 people were killed in 2009.
Drug crime has been a major woe for Mexico, which has been the main hub for drug trafficking from Latin America to the U.S. In his New Year's speech, the country's President Felipe Calderon declared fighting drug crimes in Mexico the government's top priority for 2010.
According to the local Excelsior paper, more than 15,000 people have been killed in drug-related clashes in Mexico since Calderon came to power in 2006.
MEXICO CITY, February 1 (RIA Novosti)
