Official: 13 killed in Mexican car wash massacre

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on a car wash in western Mexico on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, an official said. It was the third massacre in Mexico in less than a week.

The gunmen drove up to the car wash in the city of Tepic and opened fire without provocation, said the official with the attorney general's office of Nayarit state, where the city is located.

Between 13 and 15 people were killed and at least two were injured, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The motive was not immediately clear.

President Felipe Calderon, speaking at a forum in security just as news of the massacre was emerging, called for a minute of silence for the victims but did not offer any details.

He also called the moment of silence for the victims of two other massacres that have occurred in Mexico since Friday: an attack on a birthday party that killed 14 young people in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, and a shooting at a drug rehab center in Tijuana that killed 13 recovering addicts.

The three attacks did not appear to be related. Such mass shootings have become increasingly common in Mexico, where drug-gang violence has surged in recent years.

Authorities did not say who might be behind the attack in Tepic, but drug gangs were blamed in the first two massacres.

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