At least nine people were killed, including five boys aged under 18, when an armed gang opened fired inside an arcade west-central Mexico on Monday.

The Michoacán state prosecutors office said eight of the victims died inside the gaming center and the ninth person was declared dead at a local hospital.

According to local media reports, four men barged into the arcade located in La Magdalena, a neighborhood in the municipality of Uruapan, approximately at 3pm local time and starting shooting.

Mexican newspaper Razón reported that the arcade allegedly served as a drug selling point.

Another outlet reported that the owner of the gaming center was an active member of the Michoacán police force.

Video footage posted on social media showed multiple victims lying on the arcade floor, with one woman crying, 'my son has been wounded.'

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

A woman stands in the middle of an arcade where nine people, including five minors, were gunned down by a hit squad in Uruapan, Michoacán, on Monday afternoon

Four men stormed an arcade (pictured) in Michoacán, Mexico, on Monday and executed nine people, among them five boys. The gaming center allegedly served as a place were drugs were sold and it was reportedly owned by an active member of the Michoacán police force

Authorities identified the victims as Luis Ángel S., 12; Miguel Ángel B., 13; José Alexis Z., 14; Óscar Enrique C., 17; Christopher M., 18; and Sergio Arturo N., 39.

Orlando Ramses M., whose age is unknown, died while doctors were trying to save him.

Several Mexican news outlets report that a woman and another child were killed in the deadly assault.

Also wounded in the attack were two males identified as Luis Gustavo L. and Héctor S.

Police collected 65 9mm bullet casings while canvassing the murder scene. No arrests had been reported as of Tuesday morning.

A police officer (right) stands outside an arcade center in Michoacán, Mexico, where nine people were executed by a narco hit squad

Witnesses told investigators the hit squad, reportedly connected to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was searching for two men known as 'El Ruso' y 'El Pelón'. Both are alleged members of Los Viagras.

The municipality of Uruapan has been consumed with a wave of violence for two years now as Los Viagras has waged war on the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, considered by analysts to be the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico.

Luis Felipe 'El Vocho' Barragán Ayala, who reportedly oversaw the Jalisco New Generation Cartel operations in Uruapan, was captured there by security forces last Friday.

The Michoacán state prosecutor's office connected El Vocho to the murder of 16 men and women whose bodies were found hanging from a highway overpass and mutilated on a road in Uruapan in August.

Government data registered 2,049 homicides in Michoacán in 2019, ranking it as the sixth deadliest state in the country.