A shooter has opened fire at a club in Playa del Carmen, Mexico during the last night of The BPM festival.
Shots were fired in the early hours on the last night of the dance music festival in Playa Del Carmen, with reports coming in just after 3.30am. The BPM Festival has just released an official statement on their Facebook page :
It is with great sadness to share that police have confirmed reports of a lone shooter outside the Blue Parrot nightclub in Playa Del Carmen earlier today, which resulted in four fatalities and twelve injured. The violence began on 12th street in front of the club and three members of the BPM security team were among those whose lives were lost while trying to protect patrons inside the venue.
The BPM Festival has been working closely with the local authorities (Seguridad Publica / Policia Turistica) throughout the festival to ensure public safety and security for all visitors. We are overcome with grief over this senseless act of violence and we are cooperating fully with local law enforcement and government officials as they continue their investigation.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families and all those affected by these tragic events.
The BPM Festival Familia
Valerie Lee, Mixmag’s US digital editor, was at Blue Parrot said the attack happened outside a closing party at the end day of the BPM 10-day electronic musical. Speaking to the Guardian she said:
We arrived closed to 2.30pm. We were there for maybe 20 minutes when we heard four to five shots. Everyone was kind of processing it for a second then people starting running away from the main entrance towards the back.
There is a large cement wall so we kind of crouched underneath waiting to see what was happening. People started saying it was just fireworks. But shortly after other people came running through the area and said they had seen someone with a gun.
Lee said that after crouching under a metal table behind the wall for up to five more minutes she fled out of the back of the club into the street, where people crying with panic.
We later talked to a friend who had been outside when it happened. He said he was a mere 20 ft away from the shooter and he said he saw five bodies on the ground before he was running away. The shooters didn’t seem to enter the club, they just kind of shot towards the front entrance and did not get in. People seem to be saying shooters but I’m not positive (how many there were).
– Valerie Lee, Mixmag’s US digital editor
The UK Foreign Office said embassy staff in Mexico were “urgently looking into” the reports. In a statement, it said any Britons caught up in the incident should follow the advice of local authorities. The Foreign Office issued a telephone number for anyone worried about friends or family members in Mexico.