A grenade blast apparently set off inadvertently wounded 16 people in a bar Thursday in Puerto Vallarta, in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, dpa reported.
Cristina Guzman, a spokeswoman for the Jalisco State Attorney's Office, told the German Press Agency dpa that five of the injured have serious wounds. One victim suffered the amputation of a leg and another lost a foot.
These same five people who were most seriously wounded have been arrested, because the explosion early Thursday came from their table, where the grenade's safety pin was also found.
Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez said preliminary investigations show that the youths who had the grenade were drinking in the bar when one of them dropped the explosive "by accident."
"They went into a place of alcohol consumption with grenades, not to attack anybody, according to the witnesses who already testified, but to have beer," the governor said.
Guzman said the investigation was ongoing, and that the authorities hoped the five men arrested could shed light on the incident.
Grenade attacks are not uncommon in violence-plagued Mexico, mostly in connection with organized crime, which has claimed more than 28,000 lives since December 2006.