Ten people were killed and seven others wounded in a bar attack by four gunmen late Saturday night in central Mexico, a security official said in a city so far free of organized crime violence.

“Four armed men arrived with powerful weapons in a car” in Queretaro, Juan Luis Ferusca Ortiz said in a video uploaded to X. “Ten people were killed inside,” while “at least seven others were injured.”

Three women were among the victims, according to the Queretaro state prosecutor’s office.

One person was arrested and remanded in custody, according to the security official.

The license plates of the vehicle the perpetrators were driving were identified and the car was found abandoned and “set on fire” by the perpetrators.

The events are confirmed by closed-circuit surveillance videos that reached Mexican media. At least four gunmen get out of a parked vehicle with the doors open in front of the bar, then enter the nightclub, according to one.

Inside, patrons fall to the ground or run away from the fire under floodlights, according to second footage, which shows a party being violently interrupted.

Los Cantaritos bar is located on a busy avenue, in the historic center of the colonial-era city that welcomed in September, like every year, a festival where artists and intellectuals meet.

The state of Queretaro and its capital of the same name are rarely affected by the wave of violence attributed to drug cartels that is sweeping the rest of Mexico.

“The entire security system in Queretaro has been mobilized to find the criminals,” state governor Mauricio Kuri said via X.

“We will continue to protect our borders and keep our state safe,” he promised. “Those responsible for this barbaric action will be punished,” he added.

Queretaro is ruled by the National Action Party (PAN, right-wing opposition), as is neighboring Guanajuato, the hardest-hit state of any of the country’s 32 administrative departments, recording the highest number of homicides annually.

“There are four criminal gangs that have been operating in Queretaro for some years,” notes security expert David Saucedo, adding that the manner of the perpetrators of Saturday’s massacre is reminiscent of violent incidents in Guanajuato.

There are often “attacks against bars and restaurants, either to ‘pay the rent'”, i.e. to pay protection as criminals demand, “or because a rival gang sells drugs in these places”, explains Mr. Saucedo.

The violence seems to have escalated even more after the new left-wing president, Claudia Scheinbaum, was sworn in and took office on October 1: a mayor was beheaded in early October in the state of Guerrero (south), where 11 bodies were found abandoned in a vehicle on last week.

In France, a war broke out as officials in the new government spoke of “Mexicanization”, referring to the rise in violent incidents linked to drug trafficking.

In a statement, the Mexican embassy in Paris expressed regret for the use of this expression, which contributes to the “stigmatization” of the country and signals its transformation into a “stereotype”.

He insisted on the “great efforts being made by the Mexican government” to deal with the violence in “some parts of the territory.”

Since President Sheinbaum took office, there have been 2,788 homicides, according to TResearch, which relies on public data.