Twenty-three people were killed in about 24 hours in Chihuahua state plagued by drug violence on the US border, authorities said Saturday.

Between late Friday and Saturday 13 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez, across from the US city of El Paso, Texas, Chihuahua state prosecutors said.

One of the incidents in which the murders took place involved a car theft, and a couple was killed in a violent assault at a shopping mall,
officials said.

Another 10 people were murdered in other locations around Chihuahua state, prosecutors added.

Ciudad Juarez is at the heart of a wave of drug attacks which have left some 28,000 dead since 2006, according to official figures.

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Most killings in Ciudad Juarez are attributed to disputes between the Juarez and Sinaloa gangs over control of lucrative drug trafficking routes
into the United States.

With a population of 1.3 million, Ciudad Juarez had more than 2,660 murders in 2009 and 1,850 so far this year, officials say