Gunmen kill 8 in rural Mexico

GUNMEN burst into a party in western Mexico on Friday, killed eight youths and left another person wounded.

The attack was the second in two days. On Thursday, gunmen in the border city of Ciudad Juarez shot dead six young men and a woman at a wake, and seriously wounded a ten-year-old girl.

The massacre happened in the Pacific coast township of Navolato, near the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan.

Local media reported that the attackers arrived in a convoy of vehicles and opened fire with assault rifles – tactics favoured by Mexico's drug gangs.

The state is home to some of Mexico's most powerful cartels, and gunmen have taken to staging mass attacks on gatherings they believe might be attended by rival gang members.