Ingrid Escamilla murder: Mexico outraged over brutal stabbing Published duration 11 February

image copyright Reuters image caption In a recent protest against femicides, an artist placed red shoes in Mexico City's Zócalo square to remind people of the victims

Mexicans are expressing their outrage over the brutal murder of a young woman stabbed to death by her partner.

Ingrid Escamilla, 25, was killed by the man she lived with, who also mutilated and skinned parts of her body in an attempt to dispose of the evidence.

Femicides, gender-based killings of women, have been on the rise in Mexico with more than 700 cases currently being investigated.

Activists say the number of women killed for their gender is much higher.

Impunity

According to official figures, 3,142 women were killed in Mexico in the first 10 months of 2019. Of those, 726 cases are being treated as femicides, a number women's rights activists argue is too low.

image copyright Reuters image caption Last month, the murder of women's rights activist Isabel Cabanillas prompted protests

They are also critical of the fact that the vast majority of cases are never solved and only a tiny percentage of perpetrators are brought to justice.

News of the murder of Ms Escamilla came just a day after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that the issue of femicides "had been manipulated" by media critical of his administration.

He was answering questions by journalists about plans by Prosecutor General Alejandro Gertz to change the way femicides are classified.

On social media, some Mexicans also expressed their anger over the fact that photos of the remains of Ingrid Escamilla had been published on the internet and many asked whether those who had leaked them would be disciplined.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the left-wing mayor of Mexico City, where the murder was committed, said that prosecutors would ask for the maximum sentence for Ms Escamilla's killer.

She said that a suspect had been arrested.

A video circulated by Mexican media shows a man, splattered with blood, being questioned by police in a patrol car. In it, he tells police that he stabbed his partner during an argument about his drinking and mutilated her and disposed of parts of her body in drainage near their apartment.

Local media said police were alerted by the suspect's ex-wife, whom the suspect had reportedly confessed his crime to.