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.
The fire at Casino Royale in Monterrey — a city 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 cartels in late 2006.
Nuevo Leon state Gov. Rodrigo Medina told the Televisa network that 53 people were confirmed dead in the attack.
State Attorney General Leon Adrian de la Garza said a drug cartel was apparently responsible. Cartels often extort casinos and other businesses, threatening to attack them or burn them to the ground if they refuse to pay.
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.
With shouts and profanities, the attackers told customers and employees to get out. But many terrified patrons and workers fled further inside the building, where they died, trapped amid the flames and thick smoke that soon billowed out of the building.
In an act of desperation, authorities commandeered backhoes from a nearby construction site to break into the casino’s walls to try to reach those trapped inside.
Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal said many of the bodies were found inside the casino’s bathrooms, where people had locked themselves inside to escape the gunmen.
