This picture shows a bride and groom at their wedding shortly before he was shot down in front of their guests in a hail of bullets.

The bride was later shown with blood stains on her dress after it pooled on the floor as guests and then paramedics battled to save the life of her new husband.

Antonio Rosales Contreras, 32, a computer systems engineer who married his lawyer fiancee in her home city of Caborca in Sonora, Mexico, was gunned down in front of their wedding guests on Saturday, 22nd October.

He then died on his way to the hospital as a result of his injuries, according to local media reports.

This was after Antonio’s family performed CPR on the unfortunate groom in an attempt to resuscitate him before he was taken away by Red Cross emergency workers.

In contrast, the victim’s sister, Michele Adriana, 23, who was hit in the back by a bullet during the attack, is said to be recovering from her injuries.

The Prosecutor’s Office in Sonora has reportedly asked for the public’s assistance in their investigations following the horrific incident.

Despite this, the governor of Sonora, Alfonso Durazo, stated that the incident may have been a “direct attack” so it should not be seen as a cause for alarm by local residents.

He added: “The first lines of investigation suggest that it was an attack specifically directed against the person who unfortunately lost his life.”

The Sonora governor was then accused of playing down the levels of violence in a region plagued by insecurities in a number of online comments after he allegedly described the incident as a one-off attack and was quoted as stating that there was no need for public “psychosis” by Mexican journalist Michelle Rivera.

One user wrote: “And if it was a direct attack, so what?”

Another added: “Do not try to minimize what is obvious.”