An arson attack on a casino in the northern Mexican industrial city of Monterrey sparked a massive fire and killed at least 53 people, the governor of the state of Nuevo Leon said Thursday.
Governor Rodrigo Medina announced the grim toll in an interview with the Televisa network, adding that the vast establishment, the Casino Royale, had been set ablaze using some kind of flammable liquid “like gasoline.”
President Felipe Calderon condemned the attack, calling it an “abhorrent and barbaric act of terror” in a message on Twitter and expressing his solidarity with the people of Nuevo Leon, of which Monterrey is the capital.
“An unacceptable act of terror
has been committed that will
not go unpunished,” added national security spokesman Alejandro Poire.
Casinos in Monterrey have recently been targeted because some owners have refused to pay protection money demanded by criminal gangs linked to the country’s booming drugs trade, local media have reported.