Casino attack in Mexico's Monterrey kills 51

 MONTERREY: Armed men killed at least 51 people in an attack on a casino in northern Mexico that left the building ablaze with gamblers trapped inside, officials said on Thursday.

People remained stuck inside the Casino Royale building in Monterrey, a prosperous city 140 miles (230 km) from the Texas border that has suffered from increasing violence in recent
months as the country's war with drug gangs intensifies.

Nuevo Leon state attorney general Adrian de la Garza was quoted by local media as saying 51 people died in the attack Civil protection warned the death toll could rise further. Television images showed firemen had controlled the blaze while relatives of people trapped inside the building lined up to demand information about their loved ones.

Paramedics and firemen continued to pull bodies covered with plastic bags from a hole on the wall as night fell in one of Mexico's top industrial hubs.

Through his Twitter account, President Felipe Calderon called the attack a "barbaric act of terror" and vowed to keep fighting organized crime