A man who was tossed out of a northern Mexico bar returned and set fire to the establishment early Saturday, killing 11 people, authorities said. The suspect has been arrested.
According to a Facebook post by FGJE Sonora, the fire broke out at the bar at about 1:33 a.m. in San Luis Rio Colorado, which borders the southwestern Arizona city of San Luis.
The fire killed seven men and four women and injured six others, CNN reported, citing the state prosecutor’s office in Sonora. A 17-year-old and a female U.S. citizen were among those killed, Gustavo Rómulo Salas, Sonora’s attorney general, said during a news conference.
11 people were killed and four were injured in an arson fire in San Luis, Mexico. https://t.co/bePvr5qv4q
— KYMA (@KYMA11) July 22, 2023
Most of the victims died of smoke inhalation, Salas told reporters.
The suspect, who was removed from the bar due to “improper behavior toward women,” returned to the bar with an item that authorities called a “Molotov bomb.”
“A subject, apparently with a high degree of intoxication, threw an object with fire at the doors of the establishment,” causing him to be expelled from the bar, authorities wrote on Facebook.
Salas later said that the man went to his truck and parked in front of the Beer House Cantina bar. He then extracted fuel from the truck, sprayed the door with it and then used a blowtorch type of tool to start the blaze.
“Immediately the flames spread,” Salas said. The fire created “chaos, smoke and electricity was interrupted,” Salas said.
Officials later confirmed they arrested a suspect in connection to the attack, KMYA-TV reported.
