53 dead in attack on casino in Mexico

MONTERREY, Mexico?? Two dozen gunmen burst into a casino in northern Mexico on Thursday, doused it with gasoline and started a fire that trapped gamblers inside, killing 53 people and injuring a dozen more, authorities said.

Among the dead were at least 35 women and 10 men, Mexico's Excelsior newspaper reported. The gender of eight of the bodies had not been determined, the paper said.

The fire at the Casino Royale in Monterrey, a relatively wealthy city of 4 million that has seen a surge in drug cartel-related violence, represented one of the deadliest attacks on an entertainment center in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

Nuevo Leon state Gov. Rodrigo Medina told the Televisa network that 53 people had been confirmed dead in the attack.

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"But we could find more," said state Attorney General Leon Adrian de la Garza, adding that a drug cartel was apparently responsible for the attack.

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It is assumed the attack was carried out by the Zetas cartel, who set fire to the casino because the owners had not paid some $10,000 a week the organization had demanded, government officials told Excelsior.

Rival drug gangs are fighting for control of Monterrey, which lies 140 miles from the Texas border, and they routinely extort casinos and other businesses, threatening attacks if the owners refuse to pay up.

The Zetas was started by deserting Mexican special forces members and counts former members of the police and armed forces among its ranks.

'There is nobody to ask'
Relatives of people trapped inside the building lined up to demand information while others used social media to start their own searches.

"My wife came here for a celebration ... She was having dinner with her friends," a weeping, unidentified man told Milenio TV.

"My sister was working inside as a waitress," said another man. "I know nothing about her, there is only confusion."

Maria Tomas Navarro, 42, stood weeping at the edge of the police tape stretched in front of the smoke-stained casino building. She was hoping for word of her brother, 25-year-old Genaro Navarro Vega, who had worked in the casino's bingo area.

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Navarro said she tried calling her brother's cell phone. "But he doesn't answer. I don't know what is happening," she said. "There is nobody to ask."

President Calderon tweeted that the attack was "an abhorrent act of terror and barbarism" that requires "all of us to persevere in the fight against these unscrupulous criminal bands."

State police officials quoted survivors as saying armed men burst into the casino, apparently to rob it, and began dousing the premises with fuel from tanks they brought with them. The officials were not authorized to be quoted by name for security reasons. De la Garza said the liquid appeared to be gasoline.

With shouts and profanities, the attackers told the customers and employees to get out. But many terrified customers and employees fled further inside the building, where they died trapped amid the flames and thick smoke that soon billowed out of the building.

Workers continuing to remove bodies well into the night.

Bodies found in bathroom
Televisa said up to 20 more bodies still might be trapped in the debris of the casino. Paramedics and firefighters pulled out bodies covered with plastic bags from a hole in the wall as night fell.

Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal said many of the bodies were found inside the casino's bathrooms, where employees and customers had locked themselves to escape the gunmen.

In an act of desperation, authorities commandeered backhoes from a nearby construction site to break into the casino's walls to try to reach the people trapped inside.

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State police officials initially said witnesses reported hearing three explosions before the fire started, but later said a flammable material was used. The officials were not authorized to be quoted by name for security reasons.

The reports of explosions may have been the sound of the ignition of the liquid.

'Nothing will be done'
About 42,000 people have been killed in the drug war across Mexico since Calderon took office in late 2006 and deployed troops against the drug cartels.

Alberto Islas, a security expert at consultancy Risk Evaluation, said Thursday's carnage showed Calderon's strategy had failed to curb the power of the cartels.

"The impunity and lack of investigation were the most obvious incentives for the criminals to carry out this act of violence," Islas said. "At the end of the day, they know nothing will be done about it."

It was the second time in three months that the Casino Royale was targeted. Gunmen struck it and three other casinos on May 25, when the gunmen sprayed the Casino Royale with bullets, but no was reported injured in that attack.

Last month, gunmen killed 20 people at a bar in Monterrey. The attackers sprayed the bar with rounds from assault rifles, and police later found bags of drugs at the bar.

Monterrey has seen bloody turf battles between the Zetas and Gulf cartels in recent months. Once Mexico's symbol of development and prosperity, the city is seeing this year's drug-related murders on a pace to double last year's and triple those of the year before.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44282514/ns/world_news-americas/

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