The shooting started shortly after dinnertime Tuesday in the small town of San Francisco del Rincon, with round after round rifling into a park filled with playing kids.

A 36-year-old man died, and several “girls, boys, and adolescents were injured,” according to Guanajuato state governor Libia Dennise Garcia.

“I was bathing my little girl when I heard around 20 (shots),” said one mother who asked to remain anonymous for her security.

She rushed to see what was happening and saw “the women shouting for their children”, shouting that “there were children”.

Bullet holes were visible on the walls of at least one nearby home, and one victim had multiple shards of shrapnel in their back, AFP was told.

Authorities in the town of 80,000 people later said that three of the youngsters had been discharged from the hospital, while five were still receiving medical attention.

All the survivors were said to be “out of danger”. Their ages were not given.

Harrowing ‘stampede’

Residents complained that gang members often gathered in the neighbourhood unbothered by police.

“With this, there have now been four” shootings nearby, said one neighbour, who also asked for her identity to remain secret.

The church “gives lessons at night, and there were a lot of kids” in the park, the same woman added.

“The stampede of kids was really ugly.”

The state prosecutor’s office announced that it had opened an investigation.

It is the second instance of large-scale violence in the state of Guanajuato in less than a month.

At the end of January, an attack occurred after a football game in the city of Salamanca that left 11 people dead and 12 injured.

The powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel are active in the state.

Guanajuato is a significant industrial hub with assembly plants for international car manufacturers, as well as numerous tourist attractions.