Global General

5 die, 2 injured in Mexican army-gangsters shootout

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-23 10:46
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MEXICO CITY - Five civilians died, one was arrested and two soldiers were injured in a gunfight between government troops and suspected gangsters in the Mexican Pacific coast state of Nayarit, Mexican broadcaster Milenio reported on Monday.

The shootout took place in the center of Tepic, the capital of Nayarit,Sunday night when soldiers began chasing a vehicle with alleged gangsters aboard.

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The gunfire sent passersby, shop owners and stallkeepers fleeing for their lives. The soldiers finally catched up with the vehicle at the crossroads of Diamante and Plomo streets, where they found five of the six on board dead.

The bodies were carried to the State Attorney's Medical Forensic Service for identification. Those injured were taken to a city centre hospital. Following the incident, six guns and three vehicles were seized by the army.

State police have sealed eight buildings across the city and up to 60 investigators are seeking information on smuggling activity at these locations.

Separately in Mazatlan, a port city in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the head of the city police, Guadalupe Navarro Rodriguez, was killed outside her home, State Attorney officers told Mexican newspaper  La Cronica.

Her colleague, Roberto Zamorano, was also injured in the attack, which took place just after 7 a.m. local time. The two were shot as they arrived at the house in a private vehicle, after completing their work, by gunmen in another vehicle.

In another northern Mexican state, Durango, troops seized nearly 3.2 tons of marijuana split into 318 packets hidden in bushes in the town of Canatlan, according to a Defense Ministry statement. The soldiers arrested a man carrying a handgun at the scene, who said he was just guarding the drugs.