A Mexican local journalist has been shot to death outside his home in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, the country’s deadliest for reporters in recent years.

The state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that 43-year-old Pedro Tamayo was gunned down by two attackers on Wednesday night in the municipality of Tierra Blanca. Investigators recovered multiple 9mm shells.

Authorities did not give a possible motive for the killing, and it was not immediately clear if Tamayo was targeted because of his work.

The newspaper he worked for, El Piñero de la Cuenca, published an editorial saying Tamayo “documented the acts of violence and social protest in his hometown” and had also reported extensively on crime.

“On many occasions he was intimidated by the forces of official power,” it said. “And his stories, the majority of which were about violence, made some uncomfortable.”

Tamayo also contributed to the website Alcalorpolitico.com.

He had left Veracruz for a time when he felt threatened while investigating the case of five young people who disappeared in the state.

Tierra Blanca is a notoriously violent corner of Veracruz. The Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful crime groups in Mexico, is blamed for kidnapping and killing five young people who disappeared there on 11 January.

At least 17 journalists have been murdered in Veracruz since late 2010, and others have disappeared.

All those killings have occurred during the administration of Governor Javier Duarte, who has at times sought to blame journalists for the violence and suggested some had ties to the drug cartels that frequently fight turf battles in the state.