Mexico wedding massacre kills seven

MEXICO CITY - Masked gunmen burst into a wedding in southern Mexico and shot dead seven guests in an apparent settling of scores as a year riddled by gangland-style murders drew to an end.

Officials in the crime-ridden Pacific Coast state of Guerrero reported the shooting on Sunday as police elsewhere in Mexico said they found five other dead bodies bearing the hallmarks of gang killings.

Some 2000 people have died this year in Mexico in an increasingly brutal war between rival drug cartels.

Local police spokesman Noe Morales said four men and three women died when unidentified gunmen sprayed bullets into a wedding party in the village of Zacualpan, Guerrero state. He said the gunmen escaped and their motive was unknown.

Mexico's municipal and state police, poorly paid and badly equipped, are widely perceived as inept and highly corrupt.

- REUTERS