Eight people were killed and two others wounded when a group of gunmen opened fire on a crowd outside a nightclub in a town in southwestern Ecuador, police said Sunday.
Law enforcement arrived on the scene following an emergency call alerting them to a shooting, and found “several people wounded and seven bodies,” police colonel Javier Chango told a press conference, adding an eighth person died in hospital.
The gunmen arrived in two pickup trucks and opened fire on people drinking outside the nightclub at 1:15 am local time (0615 GMT) in Santa Lucia, which has a population of 38,000 in the Guayas Province.
Among the dead was the nightclub owner Jorge Urquizo, who was the brother of Santa Lucia’s mayor.
Police found 800 cartridge cases at the scene.
After the attack the gunmen got back in their trucks and fled along an “unknown route,” Chango said.
The local police picked up a man driving a truck who was carrying a revolver, but were not able to determine whether he was involved in the attack.
The police said they have yet to work out a motive for the shooting.
The bodies of the dead were taken to a morgue in the neighboring city of Daule.
The office of Santa Lucia’s mayor Ubaldo Urquizo expressed condolences on Sunday.
“We unite in sorrow and prayer for this violent attack that has struck our community,” the office said on social media.
Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world’s two top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.
More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador’s ports, according to government data.
Guayas is one of four provinces where President Daniel Noboa recently declared a two-month state of emergency to combat gang violence.
However despite a stepped-up military presence authorities have not stemmed the bloodshed.
More than 4,051 homicides were recorded between January and May, according to official figures. Analysts believe it is the most violent start to a year in the country’s recent history.
