Gunmen disguised as soldiers kill 12 people at Ecuador cockfight

Quito: Criminals dressed in fake military uniforms opened fire on spectators at a cockfight in rural Ecuador, killing 12 unarmed people and wounding s...

Quito: Criminals dressed in fake military uniforms opened fire on spectators at a cockfight in rural Ecuador, killing 12 unarmed people and wounding several others, police in the violence-plagued South American nation said Friday.

Security footage of Thursday night's attack showed a group of at least five men entering the arena and opening fire with automatic rifles on a crowd of dozens in the rural community of La Valencia in northwest Ecuador.

The attackers were dressed in replica military uniforms -- a common tactic of criminal gangs in the country, which averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year as cartels vie for control over cocaine routes that pass through Ecuador's ports.

The footage, circulated on social media, showed spectators flinging themselves to the ground and taking cover under their seats.

"We have 12 people deceased as a result of an armed attack by a criminal group," police colonel Renan Miller Rivera said in a statement Friday.