Birthday party massacre: 11 slashed, stabbed to death in Mexico

Police said the brutal killings, which included two minors, were possibly people “settling scores”.

Attackers wielding knives burst into a child’s birthday party in central Mexico, stabbing and slashing to death 11 people, including two minors, authorities said on Thursday.

A police officer patrols outside of a house where eleven people were found dead at Villa de los Milagros residential park, in the city of Tizayuca in Mexican state of Hidalgo, Mexico, on July 13, 2017.(Reuters)

Hidalgo state prosecutor Javier Ramiro Lara Salinas said at a news conference that the preliminary investigation suggested the attack in a house near Tizayuca, just north of Mexico City, was a “settling of scores”.

Among the victims was a man with a Mexico City police ID. Lara said the home’s owner had served time on a kidnapping charge in Mexico State.

Authorities received a 911 call after midnight on Thursday alerting them to the killings.

Officers discovered 11 bodies — seven of them female and four male, with two minors, state authorities said. They had initially said the victims were seven men and four women. Four minors survived the attack without injuries.

None of the victims was shot. All were killed by knives or other cutting weapons.

The area had largely been spared the violence affecting other parts of Mexico.