President Claudia Sheinbaum says she instructed authorities to ‘thoroughly investigate’ the incident outside Mexico City.
Published On 20 Apr 2026
A gunman has shot dead a Canadian woman and left at least 13 others injured at Mexico’s Teotihuacan pyramids, a popular tourist and archaeological site outside of Mexico City, authorities say.
The perpetrator later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Monday, local officials said. The State of Mexico said seven of the injured victims had been shot, and others had suffered from falls.
“Care is being provided to the people who were affected, and the presence of elements from the state Secretariat of Security will be maintained,” Mexico State Governor Delfina Gomez Alvarez wrote on X.
Victims of the attack were taken to hospital for treatment. They include Colombian, Russian and Canadian tourists, the local government said. The extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.
Local prosecutors later identified the suspected gunman as Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez, a Mexican national. They did not provide further details.
Videos and photos published by local news organisations show a man standing with a gun on top of a pyramid while people duck for cover. Several gunshots ring out in the videos.
The incident took place shortly after 11:30am (17:30 GMT) local time, when dozens of tourists were at the top of the Pyramid of the Moon.
A man standing on the structure’s platform began firing upward, according to a tour guide who was at the scene and spoke to The Associated Press (AP) on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
“Some people, because they were scared … threw themselves face down on the ground, and the rest of us started to go down,” the guide said, recounting how the shooter, upon seeing the tourists descending the pyramid’s steps, began firing. Another group of visitors lay motionless on the pyramid’s platform to avoid being targeted by the shooter.
The first to respond to the shooting were the police officers providing security within the archaeological ruins, and shortly afterwards, a National Guard unit arrived in a van to handle the emergency.
In past years, staff at the archaeological site carried out security scans before people entered the area, but have since stopped.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she is closely monitoring the situation and her government is in contact with the Canadian embassy.
“I have instructed the Security Cabinet to thoroughly investigate these events and provide all necessary support,” Sheinbaum wrote on X.
“Personnel from the Secretariat of the Interior and Culture are already heading to the site to provide assistance and accompaniment, along with local authorities.”
The pre-Hispanic city was one of the most important cultural centres in Mesoamerica.
The incident comes less than two months from the start of the FIFA World Cup, which Mexico will cohost with the United States and Canada.
Concerns over the security situation in Mexico came to the forefront in February after violence erupted across parts of the country, following the killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho”, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
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