(NewsNation) — A group of gunmen invaded and opened fire at a resort in central Mexico, killing six adults and a 7-year-old Saturday, authorities say.

An eighth person was seriously wounded in the shooting at the La Palma resort, officials of the Cortazar municipality in the state of Guanajuato said in a statement. The statement did not offer a possible motive for the attack.

After the shooting, the attackers also destroyed a spa shop and took the security cameras before fleeing the scene. Mexican soldiers and police searched for the attackers with the help of a helicopter, Cortazar’s security department said in a statement.

Widely shared footage shows several vacationers at the resort running around, crying, screaming and hugging their children. A voice in one video says, “Heavily armed Sicarios arrived,” in Spanish.

Guanajuato has been Mexico’s most violent state for years. The region is plagued by violence from a turf war between the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel.

Lt. Chris Olivarez with the Texas Department of Public Safety said it’s very dangerous to travel to Mexico, and urged Americans not to do it. He said it doesn’t matter which area in Mexico people visit, it’s not safe due to the increase in cartel violence.

“It doesn’t mean that the cartels are going to target Americans specifically, but the fact that you have these gun battles in broad daylight, anyone can become a victim,” Olivarez said. “They don’t care if it’s families or children. They are going to carry out these ruthless tactics of murder in broad daylight.”

Mexican resorts and tourist areas are no strangers to gun violence. Late last year, two Canadians were shot and killed in a resort in Playa del Carmen. In 2021, a gunman on a jet ski fired at a Cancun beach. That fall, two tourists were killed in a crossfire in Tulum.

In another shooting, crowds scattered in Cancun as rival drug dealers shot and killed each other during a fight over control of drug sales in that area.