Two Canadians killed in gun fight at Mexican resort
An ambulance remains outside the Playamed Hospital, where a wounded person was transferred after a shooting in a hotel in Xcaret, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, Jan. 21. AFP-Yonhap
Two Canadians died and a third was wounded Friday in a gun battle in the Mexican vacation resort of Cancun, the authorities said Friday.
The fight broke out at the Xcaret Hotel Complex when a Canadian man opened fire at three compatriots.
Mexican officials quoted Canadian authorities as saying the people involved in the gun fight ― apparently guests at the hotel ― held criminal records for theft, drugs and weapons possession.
Lucio Hernandez, a public safety official in Quintana Roo state, which includes Cancun, said the shoot-out began after an argument among the Canadians.
Violence linked to drug trafficking has been a scourge for Mexico's Caribbean coast for years.
Two suspected drug dealers died in a gun battle at a hotel beach near Cancun in November last year.
And in October two tourists from Germany and India were killed by stray bullets during a shoot-out between drug dealers in Tulum, another town in the same area.
Mexico recorded 33,308 murders last year, marking a 3.6 percent decrease compared with 2020, in a country long plagued by cartel violence.
Since 2006 ― when the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched a controversial anti-drug military operation ― Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders, according to official figures. (AFP)