Three people were also injured in the shooting, including a five-year-old girl, police say.
At least 10 people were killed in an armed attack in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s main port and economic center. A state of emergency has been declared due to increasing drug violence, the prosecutor’s office and the police report.
Three people were injured, including a five-year-old girl, police said on Sunday.
A rifle and 9mm caliber rifles were found at the scene, the Ecuadorian public prosecutor’s office reported on its Twitter account.
“We believe this has to do with a battle between organized crime groups over the struggle for territorial control,” National Police Commander William Villaroel told a news conference.
“At the moment, our investigation and intelligence units are carrying out operational actions to identify those responsible,” the National Police tweeted earlier on Sunday. There were no immediate arrests.
The horrific attack, which one witness described as a shooting, took place at a mechanic’s shop in the city’s southwest.
Bodies could be seen lying in pools of blood on the sidewalk, as people cried and hugged each other as police cordoned off the area, AFP reported.
Ecuador’s attorney general’s office said on Twitter it had opened a “preliminary investigation into the murder of 10 people following an armed attack on Saturday night.”
Local police also confirmed the death toll in Guayaquil, which has become one of the country’s increasingly bloodied centers of a gang war between rival drug gangs.
Recent wave of violence
The port city’s location on the Pacific coast makes it a strategic starting point for drug shipments to the United States and Europe.
The murder is the latest in a recent spate of violence that has included gang and cartel-related killings and multiple prison riots and massacres as authorities crack down on gangs and seize drugs.
A witness to the latest attack, who asked not to be identified, told AFP that “there was a shooting” at a location where several people had been drinking when a group of attackers “came on motorcycles and took the lives of those who were here. ”.
A state of emergency has been in place in Guayaquil since April 1, allowing the army to mobilize on the streets and impose a curfew. The measure includes a curfew from 01:00 to 05:00 (06:00 to 10:00 GMT).
The South American country recently allowed citizens to carry guns and use them for personal defense amid a rise in crime that the government has blamed on drug trafficking gangs.