Gunman opens fire at BPM Festival closing party

Reports came in early this morning (16 January) that shots had been fired at the Blue Parrot club venue in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico at an Elrow-hosted closing party for BPM Festival.

According to early reports, five people have been shot dead including one venue security guard. A second shooting is also reported to have happened at another closing party at The Jungle.

In an eyewitness statement obtained by Dazed, Angel who was at the night said: “We were at Elrow, in the back of the club. We heard what appeared to be gunshots but a worker told us to calm down, it was just fireworks. People (sic) 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”

Reports of both incidents are still unfolding. We will share more information as we have it.

Update: BPM Festival have shared a statement confirming that three of those who died were members of the festival security team. Read their full statement below.

Update: The BBC are reporting that the fifth victim, a woman, died in the stampede which followed the shooting. Their Newsbeat news channel has obtained an eyewitness statement from Valerie Lee, US editor of Mixmag, which you can read here.