A shooting in the , this Monday left two dead and at least 13 injured. A man has killed a Canadian tourist after opening fire with a short weapon from the top of the Pyramid of the Moon against hundreds of tourists who were walking along the esplanade of the historical monument, built between 100 and 650 AD. The attack has generated scenes of chaos and panic in one of the most visited places in the country. The attacker’s shots have hit at least seven more people of different nationalities, who have been transferred to area hospitals. Two others have been injured with a fracture and sprain when falling down the stairs of the pyramid, and one more has been treated for an anxiety crisis. The second victim of the event is the shooter himself, who also died from a firearm. Some versions indicate that he committed suicide, although the National Guard confirmed to this newspaper on Monday night that its elements opened fire on the gunman without clarifying whether one of these bullets hit him while he was fleeing.
The armed attack began after noon at the northern end of the archaeological complex, which last year received about 1.8 million tourists, in Yucatán. The shooter, dressed in a checkered shirt, was wandering around the Pyramid of the Moon, the second largest on the site at 43 meters high, when he started shooting. According to the Security Cabinet, he later committed suicide. In front of the structure is the Plaza de la Luna, an open space where several tourists took cover from the shooting.
Federal authorities have released the identity of the 13 injured people. Among those injured by firearms are a 13-year-old Brazilian minor; a 6-year-old Colombian boy (with 2 hits, in the tibia and fibula), and his mother, a 37-year-old Colombian (with shots in the knee and buttock); a 29-year-old Canadian; a 31-year-old Russian and two Americans, ages 29 and 61, who are being treated at a private hospital in Mexico City.
After the unfortunate events that occurred in Teotihuacán, the inter-institutional care and coordination protocols were immediately activated for the transfer of 13 people of different nationalities who were injured, who were treated in different hospitals…
— Mexican Security Cabinet (@GabSeguridadMX)
The authorities have reported in a preliminary statement that an operation has been deployed in the area. “Unfortunately, a woman of Canadian nationality lost her life and three more people were injured, who are receiving medical attention,” the publication details. The Public Health Service (IMSS) has indicated that most of the injured were taken to the Axapusco General Hospital, just 10 kilometers away from the archaeological site. Throughout the afternoon, however, the patients were transferred to different clinics and specialty centers. According to the State of Mexico, seven of the thirteen injured people received gunshot wounds.
The police have seized a firearm, a knife and several cartridges in the archaeological site. The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has instructed security forces to investigate the events. Meanwhile, personnel from the Ministry of the Interior and Culture are heading to the scene to provide care and support to the victims. The Mexican president has regretted the event and has assured that she is in contact with the Canadian Embassy after the nationality of the only victim, so far, was revealed. “What happened today in Teotihuacán hurts us deeply. I express my most sincere solidarity with the affected people and their families,” the president wrote on her social networks. The governor of the State of Mexico, Delfina Gómez, has joined in the condolences and has assured that the presence of the state Security Secretariat will be maintained at the facility.
Anita Anand, the Canadian Foreign Minister, condemned “the horrible act of armed violence” that occurred in Teotihuacán and that consular personnel are in contact with the relatives of the Canadian victim.
The local security forces have detailed in a statement that they found the deceased as soon as they arrived at the scene, one of them the alleged aggressor. The authorities received a call reporting what happened and reports from inter-institutional coordination groups. In addition to the victim, there were 13 injured, although in the first hours they announced that there were six: four from gunshot wounds and two from falling down the 47 steps that make up the staircase of the Pyramid of the Moon. The Secretary of Security of the State of Mexico, Cristóbal Castañeda, has detailed in an exchange with the media from the archaeological zone that among the nationalities of the injured there are two Colombians, one of them a minor, a Russian and a Canadian.
The videos that have begun to circulate on social networks show the confusion of the first minutes, when the detonations were heard, and then the panic that has infected the visitors. The images show people running through the square and several women hiding behind the walls of the stone structures. “Call the police!” one of them can be heard shouting. At the end of the imposing stairs of the pyramid, a man in a checkered shirt can be seen walking along the upper platform, while a group of people grouped in one of the corners of that surface protect themselves with their bodies pressed to the ground.
It has been less than a year since the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), after the conservation work was completed. Climbing to the top of the structure has been prohibited since 2020, as it continues to be restricted to the two other important buildings in the complex: the Pyramid of the Sun and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. However, permission to ascend was resumed last May, but only to the first body of the building to avoid damaging or compromising the structure of the monument.
It is not the first time that this landmark of historical tourism and the country’s heritage pride is the scene of violent events. In 2024, by local tourists, offended because the ban on climbing the Pyramid of the Moon was disobeyed. A year earlier, one of the iconic hot air balloons that offer aerial rides over the archaeological zone, leaving two people dead, a 50-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman, along with a minor injury with first and second degree burns.
