MONTERREY, MEXICO (BNO NEWS) -- A group of gunmen executed eight people in a downtown street in northern Mexico on early Thursday morning, officials said on Friday. It is the latest violence in connection with the so-called drug war.

The brutal killings happened on early Thursday morning on the crossroads of Aramberri and Martín de Zavala streets in downtown Monterrey, the capital of the Mexican state of Nuevo León.

Police said the group of gunmen and the victims arrived at the scene in a number of vehicles. The gunmen then forced the victims, some of them believed to be minors, to exit the vehicles before they were executed in the middle of the crossroad.

After the gunmen fled the area, a large number of security forces arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area to carry out an investigation. After conducting initial analysis of the bullet shells scattered on the ground, Attorney General Adrián de la Garza said the assailants used 40 caliber hand guns.

The identities of the victims were not immediately known, and police were interviewing witnesses on Thursday as they investigated the killings. Authorities believe the massacre is related to the murder of a ninth person, a woman, at a nearby lot near Santa Lucía.

Just several weeks into the new year, Mexico has already witnessed at least 98 similar executions as the Mexican drug war continues. Figures released by the country's Attorney General office (PGR) earlier this month showed that more than 47,000 people have been killed during the past five years as a result of organized crime in Mexico.

Figures for the entire year of 2011 are not yet available, but PGR said at least 12,903 drug-related killings were reported between January and September 2011. This will likely bring the total figure for 2011 to more than 17,000, the highest annual number yet.

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