Forensic workers on the scene where journalist Miroslava Breach was shot and killed outside her home in Chihuahua, Mexico. (El Diario de Chihuahua via Associated Press)

A Mexican reporter was fatally shot in the northern state of Chihuahua on Thursday, the third journalist to be killed this month in one of the most dangerous countries for ­media workers.

The national newspaper La Jornada said Miroslava Breach, its correspondent in the state capital, also called Chihuahua, was shot eight times outside her garage in the morning and died while being taken to the hospital.

La Jornada said Breach, 54, was in the car with one of her three children at the time of the attack.

“Presumably there was at least one attacker who approached on foot when the La Jornada correspondent was taking her son to school and fired a .38-caliber” gun, it said. “Eight shells were found lying in the street.”

According to La Jornada, Breach had worked for the paper for more than 15 years and for newspapers in the cities of Chihuahua and Juarez. It reported that a sign left at the scene said, “For being a tattletale.”

An undated photo showing Miroslava Breach. (European Pressphoto Agency)

In a statement, the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office confirmed the killing and said it was investigating.

“Miroslava Breach reported on crime, insecurity, politics and ­other subjects for @lajornada­online,” tweeted Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “She was a highly respected reporter.”

According to the New York-based CPJ, 38 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992 for reasons confirmed as directly related to their work. Fifty others have been slain under circumstances that have yet to be clarified.

On Sunday, columnist Ricardo Monlui Cabrera was shot twice as he left a restaurant with his wife and son in Yanga, near the city of Cordoba in the gulf coast state of Veracruz.

And on March 2, Cecilio Pineda Brito, a freelancer and the founder of La Voz de Tierra Caliente, was killed at a carwash in Ciudad Altamirano in Guerrero state.

Killings of journalists who work for national outlets such as La Jornada, one of Mexico’s main daily newspapers, are relatively uncommon. More often, the victims are reporters for smaller, local media.

Organized crime groups have a strong presence in Chihuahua state, which borders Texas and New Mexico. Earlier this week, at least seven people were killed in shootouts between drug gangs in the state.

At least two other journalists have been killed in or near Chihuahua city, most recently radio reporter Jesús Adrián Rodríguez Samaniego on Dec. 10.