:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/grupoclarin/6QRRE7GX2VCB7KVYFDNZHOCKJQ.jpg "Armed men break into a hospital in central Mexico and kill a patient")
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Armed men stormed a hospital in central Mexico on Tuesday and killed a patient who had been admitted for a gunshot wound, authorities said.
The prosecutor’s office in the state of Morelos, south of Mexico City, said the attack happened early Tuesday in the city of Cuernavaca, the state capital.
The killers entered an intensive care unit and shot the patient to death. They fled after the attack. The victim was a 23-year-old man who had been hospitalized on Saturday for a gunshot wound.
In Mexico, homicides inside hospitals are not frequent but not unknown either.
Local press had reported a day earlier that an assailant disguised as a doctor had unsuccessfully tried to kill a patient with an injection at a hospital in the northern state of Sinaloa.
In 2023, some hitmen broke into a hospital in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with the intention of killing a patient. However, they clashed with other armed men already inside, sparking a shootout in which four people died, including a doctor who was apparently caught in the crossfire.
It is known that gangs in Mexico try to finish off their wounded rivals by attacking hospitals or ambulances. In 2021, two paramedics were killed while transporting a patient in Zacatecas, a northern state plagued by violence.