Eleven tortured and shot dead in Mexican border city

Assailants have tied up and tortured eight men and three women before shooting them dead in a northern Mexican city, local authorities have confirmed.

Police stand with relatives waiting for the bodies of their loved ones, following the murders. Source: AFP

A group of armed men have entered a residence in a northern Mexican city and murdered 11 people, authorities say.

The massacre took place near a prison on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across the Mexico-US border from El Paso, Texas.

The assailants tied up and tortured the eight men and three women before shooting them, official sources told EFE.

Forensic experts and police arrive at the crime scene, after the bodies of eleven people were found inside a house in Ciudad Juarez. Source: AFP

The Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office announced it was launching an investigation.

On Thursday, inmates at Aquiles Serdan prison in Chihuahua city, the state capital, fatally shot a prisoner reputed to be gang leader.

Eight other people were wounded in the incident.

Ciudad Juarez, where more than 3100 people were slain in 2010 at the height of a battle for control between drug cartels, had 534 homicides in the first six months of this year.