NUEVO LAREDO: Unidentified gunmen murdered the mayor of a small town in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas where 72 migrants were massacred last week, a source in the state prosecutor`s office said Sunday.

"They`ve just killed the municipal president (mayor) of Hidalgo," the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Marco Antonio Leal Garcia, 46, was shot to death while he was driving his car, the source said. His four-year-old daughter was seriously wounded in the attack, the source said.

Leal Garcia had taken office in January 2008 and was supposed to step down on December 31. The town of 25,000 people is located 60 miles (90 kilometers) northwest of the state capital, Ciudad Victoria.

His predecessor was seriously wounded in an attack a year ago, and a police officer was killed in March in a machine-gun and grenade attack on the mayor`s residence.

The state has been hit by five attacks involving explosives since the discovery Tuesday of the bodies of 72 migrants who had been massacred at a Tamaulipas ranch, allegedly by a notoriously violent drug trafficking gang call Los Zetas.

BDST: 0943 HRS, August 30, 2010