Picture used for illustrative purposes only.

Gunmen in southern Mexico killed at least 18 people in an attack on Wednesday, including the town's mayor, authorities said.

Prosecutor Sandra Luz Valdovinos told Milenio Television that the attack happened in San Miguel Totolapan in Guerrero state. Two others were wounded, she said.

"So far we have 18 confirmed dead," Valdovinos told the TV station.

Mayor Conrado Mendoza was among those killed. The motive of the attack was not immediately known.

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Press reports said the Los Tequileros gang, which is affiliated with a powerful drug cartel called Jalisco Nueva Generacion, staged the broad daylight attack.

Local TV footage showed the facade of the town hall riddled with bullets as people are heard screaming.

San Miguel Totolapan is a town of about 4,300 people in an area of Guerrero with a history of violent disputes between cartels.

Mexico has endured more than 340,000 killings blamed mainly on drug trafficking gangs since the government deployed troops to fight the cartels in 2006.

Los Tequileros had plagued San Miguel Totolapan and previously staged kidnappings there, but the group's influence dwindled after the death of one of its leaders in 2018 in a gunfight with local police.

Agence France-Presse