By LAUREN EDMONDS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Twenty-four people were shot dead and seven were injured in an armed attack on a drugs rehabilitation facility in Mexico.
Secretary of Security Pedro Alberto Cortés Zavala confirmed the horrifying attack on Wednesday after the incident was reported mid-afternoon in Irapuato of the state Guanajuato.
The gunmen reportedly shot everyone at the rehabilitation center.
It is the second such attack to take place in Irapuato in the past month.
Digital news outlet El Universal reports that a group of armed suspects arrived to the rehabilitation center in a red truck and fired several rounds at patients after entering the building.
The suspects reportedly fled the scene. Some victims were rushed to local hospitals while others reportedly left on their own means.
Three of the seven wounded individuals are in serious condition.
No motive was given in the attack, but Gov. Diego Sinhue said drug gangs appeared to have been involved.
'I deeply regret and condemn the events in Irapuato this afternoon,' Sinhue wrote.
'The violence generated by organized crime not only takes the lives of the young, but it takes the peace from families in Guanajuato.'
Local police, the National Guard and agents with the Attorney General of Guanajuato are at the scene while investigations continue.
Videos taken from the scene show heavy law enforcement presence and civilians can be heard crying in the background.
A photo circulating on social media appeared to show the victims inside the rehabilitation center after the suspects opened fire.
Neither the identity of the victims or the suspects have been publicly disclosed.
On June 6, 10 men were killed when gunmen opened fire in a rehabilitation center for addicts in Irapuato. It was not immediately clear if the same facility was hit both times.
Guanajuato is the scene of a bloody turf battle between the Jalisco cartel and a local gang, and the state has become the most violent in Mexico.
Mexican drug gangs have killed suspected street-level dealers from rival gangs sheltering at such facilities in the past.
It was one of the deadliest attacks on a rehab center since 19 people were killed in 2010 in Chihuahua city in northern Mexico. More than a dozen attacks on such facilities have occurred since then.
Mexico has long had problems with rehab centers because most are privately run, underfunded and often commit abuses against recovering addicts.
The government spends relatively little money on rehabilitation, often making the unregistered centers the only option available for poor families.
In addition, addicts and dealers who face attacks from rivals on the streets sometimes take refuge at the rehab clinics, making the clinics themselves targets for attack.
Still other gangs have been accused of forcibly recruiting recovering addicts at the centers as dealers, and killing them if they refused.
