Kidnap victims shot dead by gunmen in Mexico

Six kidnapping victims were today found dead inside a house where gunmen took refuge during a chaotic three-hour gun battle with soldiers and police in Mexico.

The victims, all male, were blindfolded and gagged and had been shot in the head, said police spokesman Edgar Millan at a news conference in Tijuana.

Soldiers and police were sent in to help control the shoot-out that began when officers prepared to raid a house near the US border that police now say was a shelter for a cell of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Three nearby schools were evacuated, and television showed police running with small children in their arms while shots were heard.

Mr Millan said the shoot-out killed one gunman and wounded four officers, in the latest outbreak of violence across the border from San Diego.

Four gunmen were arrested – one is a state police investigator and another a Tijuana police officer, he said. The four men will be flown to Mexico City for questioning.

Mr Millan said officials recovered 11 rifles and three bullet-proof vests inside the house.

Already this week, gunmen shot and killed eight people in Tijuana, including two local police officers, as well as a district commander, his wife and his 12-year-old daughter.

Also employees at Tijuana’s City Hall and police headquarters were evacuated after receiving death threats over a police radio frequency, said Abraham Sarabia, a spokesman for city police.

Mexico has seen a spike in gang-related killings since the beginning of the year. The Mexican government has described the violence as revenge for President Felipe Calderon’s crackdown on organised crime that sent thousands of soldiers and police into violence-plagued cities nationwide.