SILAO, Mexico (AFP)— Six members of a family were murdered in a rural community in Mexico’s Guanajuato state, one of the most violent in the country, local authorities said Sunday.

Four men and two women aged between 24 and 73 were found in a building with visible gunshot wounds, the state public prosecutor’s office said, refuting earlier reports that a baby was amongst the dead.

The attack took place on Saturday night.

It was the fifth attack in the rural municipality of Silao in the last four months, the prosecutor’s office said. 

Crime scene investigations found plastic wrappers with inscriptions alluding to a criminal group.

The central state of Guanajuato is a prosperous industrial area that is home to an oil refinery, but it has become one of the most violent in Mexico due to a dispute between the Santa Rosa de Lima and Jalisco New Generation drug cartels.

The two groups are competing for control of drug trafficking and fuel thefts in the state, amongst other crimes.

Since December 2006 when the government launched a controversial anti-drugs military operation, Mexico has registered more than 340,000 murders, according to official figures.