Mexico: 5 slain in bar shooting in Salamanca,

Armed attackers have killed five people at a bar in the Mexican city of Salamanca in north-central Guanajuato state.

National newspaper El Universal reports that the assailants burst into the bar in the city center around 1.30 am and began shooting at customers and employees.

The Salamanca city government confirms the killings in a statement, saying the victims were shot dead before dawn Thursday but giving no further details.

Guanajuato has been a largely peaceful state with farming, industry and the colonial tourist magnets of its eponymous capital and San Miguel de Allende.

But killings have surged of late. In the first eight months of this year, 2,275 homicides were registered almost 2.5 times the number seen in the same period two years earlier.