Updated April 28 at 9:42 a.m.
A gun battle between rival drug gangs left 15 people dead and nine injured in Tijuana early Saturday morning. Mexican law enforcement say this is just one battle in the drug war raging across Mexico’s northern border.
Tijuana has suffered a wave of violence recently as law enforcement cracks down on drug cartels in the city and drug groups duke it out among themselves for control of the key smuggling route.
This shootout began in the wee hours Saturday morning along a main boulevard in the eastern part of the city.
Gunmen ambushed a group of men in parked cars.
Police found more than half-a-dozen bodies there. Others were discovered dumped around the city.
The shooting then continued across town at a hospital where some of the injured went for help. At least two died there.
Baja California’s attorney general says eight people have been arrested so far. He says it’s too early to say which cartels the gangs belong to.
He says this is a terrible and scary event.
It’s one of the deadliest shootouts in recent years in the entire border region.