BOGOTA – Five people were killed and five others wounded when a gunmen opened fire on a crowd watching an amateur soccer match in the northwestern Colombian city of Medellin, authorities said Friday.

The bloodbath occurred Thursday night in the La Esperanza neighborhood, police Lt. Col. Ramiro Riveros said.

Two of the fatalities were minors, he told a press conference in Medellin, Colombia’s second city and the capital of Antioquia province.

The five injured survivors are in stable condition, he said.

“What we have is that a person with a firearm shot indiscriminately at some people who were watching a sporting event,” Riveros said.

The massacre may have been connected to inter-gang conflict in the area or to reprisals for police action against the criminals, he said.

Many poor neighborhoods in Medellin have become battlegrounds for well-armed factions trying to establish control over drugs and protection rackets. EFE