Tegucigalpa, Sep 8 (EFE).- Gang members were responsible for a shooting at a shoe factory in the northern city of San Pedro Sula that left 17 dead and three others wounded, the Honduran government said Wednesday.

Police said Tuesday that a total of 18 people died as a result of the attack, but the Security Ministry and Attorney General's Office subsequently revised the figure downward.

The three people wounded are under police guard at a hospital in San Pedro Sula, prosecutor's office spokesman Elvis Guzman told Efe. "No one came out unscathed," he said, adding that all 20 workers in the factory at the time of the assault were hit.

The massacre followed "a modus operandi typical of a gang," Security Minister Oscar Alvarez told reporters in San Pedro Sula.

Preliminary data indicate the killings were carried out by three men armed with a 9 mm pistol and AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles, respectively, he said.

The shooters arrived in a car along with two other people who remained in the vehicle during the attack.

Displaying computer-generated sketches based on witness descriptions of the shooters, Alvarez lamented that "17 people who were working honestly in a shoemaker's shop have been murdered."

"It's not fair, but it's the world in which we live, not just here in Honduras; you see it in Mexico, in Guatemala, in El Salvador, in other countries where violence is characteristic," the minister said.

Though gangs are blamed for the bulk of the street crime in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, the bloodletting in Mexico is attributed to a drug war pitting cartels against each other and the security forces.

Honduran authorities say the neighborhood surrounding the shoe factory is the territory of the Mara 18 gang and Alvarez suggested some of the victims might have been targeted as "sympathizers" of M-18's main rival, Mara Salvatrucha.

The bloodbath may have been linked to a battle over drug corners in the neighborhood, the minister added, while stressing that factory owner Miguel Alas - whose son was among the dead - is not involved in any illegal activity.

Another possible motive for the attack was Alas' refusal to pay protection money to M-18, Guzman said.

The fatalities, ranging in age from 17 to 35, included several high school students who worked at the factory part time, according to family members who came to the morgue to claim their bodies.

San Pedro Sula is Honduras' second-largest city and the country's business and manufacturing hub.