Post date: Mar 10, 2012 9:6:17 AM
MONTERREY, MEXICO (MARCH 9, 2012) (REUTERS) - Emergency personnel in Monterrey, Mexico rushed on Friday (March 9) night to a local strip bar where gunmen had tossed a grenade into the crowd.
Without police protection, medics entered the building and assessed the victims.
Dramatic video of paramedics rushing to rescue victim of grenade attack in Monterrey strip bar where two others were killed.
Inside, one man lay on the ground, clinging to life. Two others lay dead near the bar. Everyone else-- dancers, bartenders and clients-- had run out of the bar after the attack.
As one medic held a flashlight, the others worked feverishly over the victim whose moans pierced the darkness.
Finally, they stabilized him, secured him onto a stretcher and carried him into a waiting ambulance which sped through the streets towards the hospital.
Only then did police arrive on the scene.
Under the protection of heavy weaponry, at least three vehicles carrying police officers drove up to the Woman Men's Club.
They secured the perimeter, entered the bar and began the process of taking the corpses to the morgue.
Once a peaceful oasis of upper-middle-class families, Monterrey has seen increasing violence as it has been sucked down into the dark spiral of cartel lawlessness.
In August of 2011, more than 50 people died when gunmen attacked a crowded casino in the city.
In the past five years, since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began a massive crackdown on cartel activity, about 50,000 people have been killed across the country as soldiers try to stem the flow of drugs travelling north towards the United States and feuding drug gangs battle for control of drug routes.