MEXICO CITY, Jan 6, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A shooting at a bar in southeastern Mexico left seven people dead and five wounded, authorities said Sunday, the latest in a series of similar attacks in the violence-plagued country.

A manhunt was launched for the perpetrators of the shooting on Saturday night in the city of Villahermosa, in Tabasco state, the secretariat of security and civilian protection said in a statement.

"Analysis of video surveillance cameras is being carried out and elements of the state and federal authorities have deployed coordinated patrols to locate and arrest those responsible," it added.

The death toll initially stood at five, but the Tabasco public prosecutor's office later said two more people had died in the attack on what it described as "a clandestine bar that operated irregularly."

According to local media, unidentified gunmen burst into the bar La Casita Azul and opened fire at customers, leaving bloodied bodies strewn on the floor.

Tabasco, home to oil production facilities, has seen an increase in violent crime in recent months.

In November, six people were killed and 10 wounded in another armed attack on a bar in Villahermosa.

It came two weeks after an attack on a bar left 10 dead in the city of Queretaro, in a central region that until now had been spared from violence linked to organized crime.

The same weekend, six people were killed in a shooting in a bar in a suburb of Mexico City.

Drug-related violence has seen more than 450,000 people killed in Mexico since the government deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.

Tackling the murders and kidnappings that are a daily occurrence is among the major challenges facing President Claudia Sheinbaum.

The former Mexico City mayor, who became the country's first woman president on October 1, has ruled out declaring "war" on drug cartels.

Instead she has pledged to continue her predecessor's strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots, while also making better use of intelligence.