Five family members shot in Mexico

Gunmen have killed five members of a family, including two young children, in the drug cartel-plagued state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico.

State Attorney General’s Office spokesman Carlos Gonzalez said the unidentified gunmen took the spent shell casings away with them after shooting the family in El Terrero in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo.

Witnesses said five gunmen arrived at the house asking for a person. When the family said they did not know where he was, the assailants opened fire.

Those killed were two adult women, a teenager and two children aged three and four.

Chihuahua state, which contains Ciudad Juarez, is a hotspot in Mexico’s drug war, which has claimed more than 34,000 lives since 2006.