19 killed in Mexican drug rehabilitation centre shooting

AT LEAST 30 gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation centre in a Mexican border state capital and opened fire, killing 19 men and wounding four people.

Gunmen also killed 20 people in another drug-plagued northern city.

The killings came just weeks after authorities discovered 55 bodies in an abandoned silver mine, which are presumed to be victims of the country's drug violence.

The bullet-riddled bodies of 18 men and two women were found yesterday in five different parts of Ciudad Madero, a city in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, where violence has surged this year amid a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and its former ally, the Zetas gang of hitmen.