At least 124 people have been killed in just one week in Mexico's spiralling gang violence, according to media reports Monday, the dpa reported.
The most violent area was the northwestern state of Sinaloa, where 43 deaths were reported. In Chihuahua, 40 people were killed over the past week, the daily La Jornada reported.
In Sinaloa's capital, Culiacan, teachers, students and university employees, dressed in white, protested the increasing violence on Sunday.
They placed white carnations on a symbolic tomb and held 10 minutes' silence for the more than 500 people who have been killed this year in the state.
In the tourist town of Mazatlan on Saturday, a group of men fleeing the police after allegedly killing a senior police official, took 40 people hostage at a restaurant in a shopping mall.
Mexico has recorded more than 2,000 slayings this year amid turf wars between narcotics trafficking cartels. The centre-right federal government in Mexico City has declared war on the drug cartels, sending the federal law enforcement and the Mexican Army to bolster local police in some regions.