As a celebration of life, birthday parties are supposed to be joyful events in teenagers' lives. However, in Guerrero state in Mexico, things took a turn for the worst when unidentified gunmen shot and killed 11 people at a girl's 15th birthday party.

Newsweek reported that the state's governor, Hector Astudillo Flores, was able to confirm the massacre, saying that the shooting took place at a coming-of-age tradition party called the "quinceanera" near the border of Michoacan. Drug-related violence and homicides are frequently recorded there. 

Astudillo said, "There was a problem at a 15th birthday party, and according to the information we have, 11 people were killed." BBC also noted that the governor mentioned the case being forwarded to the attorney general, however, he made no mention of any arrests made.

Details of the incident were not made readily available either, but according to family accounts, there is a likelihood that the problem started with a disagreement between two families attending the event.

This is not the first time that violence wracked southern Guerrero. Telegraph UK noted that in September 2014, a group of 43 students disappeared after being attacked by the municipal police and were delivered to a drug cartel, which allegedly killed them. This sparked a series of protests, where activists called out the government for their collusion with criminals.

In 2015, Mexican authorities charged the former mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda with the kidnapping of the students. Out of the 43 abducted, none so far have been confirmed found. The International Business Times noted that a total of 60 graves were spotted in Iguala, near where the students disappeared, with a total body count of about 129 based on the bits and pieces of human remains found. However, without any of the tests showing relation to the missing students,the case remains open.

Mexico's poorest states have been subject to violence, with at least 324 people killed in the southern region between October and December 2015 alone. Most of these deaths are said to be related to the burgeoning drug trade in the country. Newsweek noted that numbers are even higher compared to previous years, with an estimated number reaching around 100,000 killed in Mexico alone since 2007.

Still, the national government is fighting to end the drug war. However, the capture of prominent drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in January holds little to no clue as to how it will affect the drug trade in Mexico. Per the Huffington Post, experts believe that even though it's a start, it will not make too much of an impact on drug-related violence in the country. With the massacre at a teenager's birthday party, it looks like the experts may be correct in their prediction.