AT least 18 people have been killed including a mayor after gunmen stormed as city hall.
Shocking pictures show the horror aftermath of what has been branded a "cowardly" assassination in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.
The outside of the building was left riddled with bullet holes following the attack on Wednesday afternoon and other images, which we are not publishing, showed bloodied victims.
Cartel members opened fire in the hall in San Miguel Totolapan and launched projectiles at residents in the streets and their homes for the attack.
Among the 18 killed were Mayor Conrado Mendoza and his father Juan Mendoza, a former mayor of the town.
Police officers and councillors were also killed in the grisly massacre.
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Panicked residents hid in their homes and the army was deployed to the streets, international media reported.
It is understood the gunmen targeted the home of Mayor Mendoza's father and killed him before pelting the hall with bullets.
The Party of the Democratic Union (PRD) condemned the attack, calling it "cowardly".
It added on social media: "We demand justice. Enough of violence and impunity."
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The Ministry of National Defence said army and navy units were being deployed to find the attackers.
Later Wednesday, in the neighboring state of Morelos, a state lawmaker was shot to death in the city of Cuernavaca south of Mexico City.
Armed group Los Tequileros has claimed responsibility for attack in San Miguel Totolapan. It was previously thought the group had stopped operating.
The gang was created in around 2012 by former cohorts of drug cartels the Knights Templar and La Familia.
They carried out kidnappings in Guerrero, Mexico, for several months in 2016, including one where armed men took ten people.
In December that year armed locals captured the mum and friends of the group's chief in retaliation.
Mexico has long been blighted by shootings, with victims this year including several tourists and a Brit.
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And in 2021, the bodies of nine men were found hanging from an underpass amidst a battle for control between the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, in the Zacatecas region.
San Miguel Totolapan is a remote township in Tierra Caliente, which is one of Mexicos most conflict-ridden areas, disputed by multiple drug trafficking gangs.
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