A TikTok influencer with more than 500 000 followers was shot dead while livestreaming outside a restaurant in Mexico’s Sinaloa state on Tuesday.

Cesar Gastelum (25) was broadcasting with two friends when a motorcycle carrying two people pulled up beside them. The driver shot him in the head, according to video footage circulating online.

The three were dressed as food delivery workers as part of a social media challenge when the attack happened.

Local police confirmed Gastelum’s death. The platform removed the livestream, but footage of the shooting continues to spread on social media.

Police initially reported the victim as a delivery worker before identifying him as Gastelum, who posted lifestyle content.

The shooting took place in a busy shopping plaza near the Sinaloa prosecutor’s office in Culiacan, the state capital. Soldiers and police secured the area while forensic experts collected evidence and removed the body, local TV footage showed.

Sinaloa has been gripped by violence over the past two years due to internal fighting within the region’s powerful cartel.

Around a dozen influencers have been killed in recent years in Sinaloa, with some allegedly linked to criminal gangs, local media reported.

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