Brit tourists caught up in Mexico nightclub massacre reveal dancefloor carnage after ‘cartel’ killer stormed BPM festival and gunned-down revellers including US woman, 29, who was shot in the bum
Shots were fired at the Blue Parrot in tourist hotspot Playa Del Carmen
A BRITISH tourist last night told how she ran past dead bodies on the ground after a shooting at a music festival in Mexico that killed at least five people and injured 15 others.
Four men were reportedly gunned down at the Blue Parrot club in Playa Del Carmen at 2am today and a woman was crushed to death in the resulting stampede.
Charlene Grant, a music artist manager from London, dropped to the floor in ‘sheer panic and terror’ as suspected cartel gangsters opened fire at 2am.
Miss Grant stayed down for 15 minutes and then ran for her life over bodies ‘covered in blood’.
At least 15 people were also injured in the massacre at the BPM festival, which is popular with British tourists.
A picture has emerged of an American tourist, named locally as Heather Parham, 29, being treated by medics after being shot in the buttock.
Amid the carnage British DJ Jackmaster wrote a chilling Tweet that read: "Someone has come into the club in Playa Del Carmen and opened fire. 4-5 dead and many wounded. Stay in ur f***** hotel if you're here."
Prosecutors said that a woman died in the stampede caused by the gunfire.
Also among the dead were three security guards who were trying to protect partygoers, the organisers of the BPM festival said.
Festival organiser Kirk Wilson, who is originally from Canada, is believed to have been killed along with three security guards, according to local reports.
Video footage shows hundreds of revellers dropping to the floor after hearing the shots, before sprinting away from the packed club.
Police confirmed four men including two Canadians and one Italian were killed by gunshot wounds and a woman died in a "fall".
Local media reports named Rafael Peñaloza Vega from Mexico and an Italian man called Daniel as among the dead.
Mayor Cristina Torre added 15 others were injured by "shrapnel and beatings".
Rodolfo Del Angel, director of police Quintana Roo, told the shooting was the result of "a disagreement between people inside" the nightclub.
The shooting took place at the nightclub in the hugely popular BPM electronic music festival in which 70,000 people descend on the beach town which is one hour south of holiday hotspot Cancun.
Videos posted on social media showed a stampede of people running through the street as somebody shouted: ‘He’s got a gun! Gun!’
Another video showed partygoers streaming out of one venue and running down the street in terror.
Witnesses more than 20 shots rang out when a gunman opened fire through a window and into the club.
Miss Grant, who was at the Blue Parrot, told Dazed.com: "We were partying and thought the gunshots were firecrackers at first, then everyone went down like a sea and shots were being fired.
"People were in sheer panic and terror as (we) didn't know if it was indiscriminate shooting or terrorists.
After about 10-15 mins of laying on the ground we tried to escape over a fence, but it was too high.
"Eventually we were shuttled out and ran for our lives. (I) saw dead bodies on the ground and people covered in blood. It could have been me or my friends."
Sonny Shilcock, 20, from Essex was at the Blue Parrot with four mates when the shooting started.
He told The Sun: “I was at the front of the club but heard about five very loud bangs and thought it was part of the DJ’s set until panic spread through crowd.
“We’d carried on dancing until a wave of fear went through the place and everyone hit the deck.
“I was one of the last to get out and saw one man who was clearly dead covered in a lot of blood.
“Two women were crouched over him crying and one had taken her top off to try to stem the flow of blood but he look beyond hope.
“Outside in the road I saw another man screaming as he was treated for a gunshot wound to the leg - the scene was chaotic and no one knew where to run at first.
“Lots of music fans from Britain and all over Europe were in town and it was a brilliant festival.
“This is the last thing we expected - they were shocking sights.”
A gunman is believed to have fired through an open window at The Blue Parrot event - organised by London-based promoter Elrow.
Local media reported that the shooting may be linked to a drug feud involving a local drug cartel.
Another witness called Angel said: "We were in the back of the (Blue Parrot) club. We heard what appeared to be gunshots but a worker told us to calm down, it was just fireworks.
"People started getting up and again the shots started. My friends saw the shooter running across the back of the club shooting into it through a metal rail.
"One of my friends saw a person shot and bleeding.
"Once the shooting stopped we jumped over that same fence and ran on the beach about 10 blocks.
"We were helped by some other party goers by letting us hang out in their hotel for a few minutes. They saw a guy shot in the head.
"After a few minutes we left that hotel and we saw police had a guy in custody and he was yelling ‘it wasn’t me’, as we turned the corner we heard another two shots and ran again’.
This year was the 10th anniversary of the BPM festival and the incident happened on Sunday, the closing night, when 150 DJs and artists were performing across a number of venues.
Mexican newspapers reported that the gunman fled in the chaos and has not been arrested.
Three people have been detained as possible suspects.
DJ Jackmaster - who is from Glasgow and whose real name is Jack Revill - had previously been Tweeting about how well the festival had been going until shortly after 8am UK time.
He wrote: "This is a very very sad situation. Tryna get my head around it still. Thoughts and condolences to all affected."
As the chaos unfolded the BPM Festival tweeted that all the parties on the closing night had been shut down.
Valerie Lee, a journalist with Mixmag magazine, Tweeted: “Shots were fired at Blue Parrot while we were in the building. We got out okay.
“People reporting at least five bodies were spotted on the ground. Head is spinning. Friends please check in if you were there.”
London-based DJ Sidney Charles Tweeted: "Was on the decks while shootings happened at blue parrot...me and my friends are safe. What a tragedy…"
Some 450,000 British tourists visit Mexico each year and many go to Playa del Carmen, which is located in the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatan Peninsula.
Until now it had escaped much of the bloody violence that have plagued Mexico's western coastal tourists spots, such as Acapulco.
But a number of drug cartels operate in Playa del Carmen including the brutal Los Zetas, or the Z Cartel.
Witness Jake Lubelski wrote on Facebook that there was a stampede after a gunman opened fire around 20 yards away from him.
He said: "I was standing outside of a club on an insanely crowded street when it happened.
"I was maybe 20 feet away from the shooter as soon as I heard gun shots, everyone started bolting and we nearly got trampled by the frantic herds of people.
"As soon as I turned around the corner and got a look at the scene, I saw a man lying on the floor in his own blood. It could have been me."
Witness George de Menezes said: “We were in the Blue Parrot literally two metres from us shots started going off.
"No one took it seriously, but I knew straight away that it was a gun and dropped to the floor, then everyone dropped with me.
"The music stopped and so did the shots, so we got up and one man was down on the floor and looked dead, and another man had been shot but was trying to stay on his feet."
He added: “Everyone tried to run out to the beach from the club and all of a sudden we heard another shot and everyone dropped again and it kept going on.
“Finally got out from there and got up to the Main Street and there was another man dead on the street, so everyone started running for their lives."
He said he heard more shots after getting back to his hotel, along with reports of shootings at other clubs.
"If he’d turned on us, we’d probably be dead.”
Quintana Roo state prosecutor Miguel Ángel Pech Cen confirmed at a press conference that five people were dead and 15 were injured, of which two were American.
Among the dead was an Italian and a Colombian.
Mr Pech Cen said that the attack was not terrorism but did not confirm if it was the work of drug cartels. In a statement the BPM Festival organisers said that the attack was carried out by a lone gunman.
The organisers wrote on Facebook: "We are overcome with grief over this senseless act of violence and we are cooperating fully with local law enforcement and government officials as they continue their investigation.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families and all those affected by these tragic events."
The Foreign Office said that British embassy staff in Mexico were ‘urgently’ looking into the shooting.
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