At least 16 people were injured after a grenade accidentally exploded in a nightclub in a residential area of Puerto Vallarta in the early hours of Thursday morning.
About 100 young people were partying in a bar known as Pinkcheladas at the corner of Avenida Francisco Villa and Las Gaviotas when the device went off. The bar is outside of Puerto Vallarta's main tourist zone, on the border of the neighborhood known as El Pitillal.
Red Cross and Mexican Army medics arrived quickly, and ambulances ferried the injured to several local hospitals.
According to local news reports, surgeons amputated limbs from two of the injured. Five are reported to be in serious condition.
Police believe the grenade was taken into the bar by an individual and went off accidentally. It was not thrown into the establishment, they have concluded.
Police said they found a fuse next to a table where witnesses said five men were drinking.
All five are in serious condition in hospital and are under police surveillance.
Talking on a radio program on Thursday, Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez called the explosion "an accident" but said all bars and nightclubs must improve their security systems, and even install metal detectors at their entrances. He said he would consider sending an initiative in this respect to the State Congress.
Jalisco State Police Chief Carlos Najera met with Puerto Vallarta Mayor Salvador Gonzalez Thursday in a bid to improve coordination between state and municipal law enforcement officials in the port.
A message circulated on the internet by the U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara on Thursday warned that the incident may be related to a turf war between local drug trafficking gangs in the resort.
The Consulate went on to say that it had obtained "specific credible information" that reprisals may be taken at two locations: “La Vaquita Parrilla” at Lazaro Cardenas 567 in El Pitillal or “La Mandala,” near the corner of Calle Central and Margarita Maza de Juarez.
