American teen among the 11 killed in fire set at Mexican bar

(NewsNation) — Mexican authorities arrested a man suspected of setting fire to a bar, killing 11 people including an American teenager and wounding an additional six.

The fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, at a bar in San Luis Rio Colorado, near the border city of San Luis, Arizona, according to a statement from the Sonora Attorney General’s office.

A 17-year-old female American citizen was among those killed, Sonora’s attorney general Gustavo Rómulo Salas Chávez said.

Mexican authorities say they are trying to determine whether she also had Mexican citizenship.

A total of seven men and four women were killed, including members of a musical group that was playing at the bar. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation. Ten of the victims died on the scene and another later died at the hospital.

The suspect was said to have a “high degree of intoxication” when he threw something similar to a Molotov cocktail at the bar’s door after security kicked him out for drunkenly harassing women, according to authorities.

Security cameras show the suspect driving his truck to the entrance of the bar, extracting gasoline from his car and pouring it around the entrance before using a blowtorch to start the fire, Chávez said.

Mexican authorities have ruled out any link between the incident and organized crime, and are interrogating the suspect.