Ojocaliente, Mexico - At least six people have been injured after a car bomb exploded in front of a police station in Mexico located in a region known for drug trafficking.
The blast happened in the town of Ojocaliente in Zacatecas, a state known to contain key drug trafficking routes used by major Mexican cartels.
"The explosive was placed in a private vehicle and caused physical damage to the station and properties located nearby," Zacatecas' Secretary General Rodrigo Reyes Mugüerza said in a statement posted to Facebook and translated from Spanish.
"So far, in addition to the 6 civilians reported, there is one municipal police officer injured; 11 private vehicles and 2 patrol cars affected by the explosion," Reyes Mugüerza wrote in a follow-up statement.
"According to the initial investigations, the explosive was placed in a private car and caused physical damage to the command post and properties located in the vicinity," he said. "We will continue to report through the official channels of the State Government."
Other reports indicate that the explosive device was actually thrown out a moving vehicle towards the police building.
Zacatecas is key to the drug trade because it links central Mexico with the north and west of the country, and features routes that are crucial for the smuggling of cocaine and other narcotics into the US.
As a result, horrific drug violence has plagued the state for years, with bodies turning up and people going missing almost on a daily basis. Over recent years, however, a relative calm seemed to have set in.
This was broken in July, however, when five bodies appeared hanging from a bridge in the town of Pozos de Gamboa, about 47 miles from Ojocaliente.
The victims included a former mayor, civil servants, and businesspeople from other parts of the state.