MEXICO CITY – Eight people, six of them between the ages of 18 and 30, were shot to death in different incidents over the past few hours in Ciudad Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

At the city’s general hospital Jose Robles Ortiz, 31, died Sunday morning after being riddled with bullets on Sept. 11 in an incident that is being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office for the state of Chihuahua.

Another fatality was Rogelio Meza Zuñiga, 28, who was shot several times on Saturday afternoon in the head and chest in an attack staged in the Oasis neighborhood in Juarez, the AG’s office confirmed.

Also on Saturday afternoon, Juan Mario Rodriguez Serna, 55, and Gabriela Teran, 30, were shot to death in the Felipe Angeles neighborhood, where their bodies were found with 20 shell casings nearby.

Two other young men – Pedro Leonel Garcia, 23, and Alfredo Mendez, 18 – died in two different attacks Saturday. Both were shot to death.

Garcia was murdered in the Revolucion Mexicana neighborhood, where he was found lying on the street with 16 shell casings nearby, and Mendez’s body was found in the community of Praxedis, near Ciudad Juarez.

Another individual, identified as Joel Guerrero Reyes, was murdered in the neighborhood of Portal del Valle, and 24 shell casings of three different calibers were found near his body, said the prosecutor’s office.

Finally, early Saturday morning Manuel Albino Chaparro, 22, was found dead with a single bullet wound in the head in the 16 de Septiembre neighborhood.

The killings are part of the wave of violence besetting Mexico, in particular Ciudad Juarez, where almost 1,500 people have been murdered so far this year.

Unofficial figures published Sunday by the daily El Universal, indicate that some 5,063 people have been murdered nationwide so far this year, with the country on pace to exceed the 5,630 murders the newspaper tabulated during 2008.

Authorities attribute the killings to acts of revenge or drug trafficking disputes between rival organized criminal bands.