The mayor of Chilpancingo, the capital of Mexico's violence-plagued state of Guerrero, traveled alone to an out-of-town meeting before he was killed, Mexico's security minister said on Tuesday about a murder which has shocked the country.

Alejandro Arcos, the newly elected mayor of Chilpancingo, capital city of Mexico's Guerrero state, was assassinated on Sunday. His murder comes less than a week after he assumed office in a city infamous for its high crime rate.

The mayor of a city in southern Mexico was murdered less than a week after taking office, authorities said, a crime condemned by President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday as "deplorable."