Eight people were killed and two others injured early Wednesday after armed assailants opened fire on their pickup truck on a highway near Bacalar, a tourism resort in Mexico's southeast state of Quintana Roo, local authorities said, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
According to the state prosecutor general's office, the suspects attacked the vehicle along a highway linking the towns of Limones and Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
"Preliminary investigations indicate that the passengers were traveling aboard a red pickup truck with plates from the neighboring state of Yucatan when they were shot by strangers," prosecutors said.
Local media reported the attackers fired more than 100 shots.
The two people injured were taken to a hospital in Bacalar, about 340 kilometers south of Cancun, while authorities began a statewide search for the assailants.
The city of Cancun and the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico's leading tourism destinations, have been increasingly plagued by drug-related violence.
In 2018, the number of homicides skyrocketed in the state, and the numbers have continued to remain high in the first months of 2019.