EL CHAPO LAD BLOODBATH

8 killed as masked gangsters stage shootout in street

CHAOTIC scenes of violence engulfed a Mexican city as security forces had to release drug lord El Chapo’s captured son when armed cartel fighters launched all-out war.

The battle for Mexico exploded into a raging street battle in the home town of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel when kingpin Ovidio Guzmán Lopez was briefly detained.

National Guard police had to flee when his gangster pals surrounded them in a gunfight as civilians loyal to the powerful family also opened fire.

He was let go after a fourhour-long face-off “to protect lives”, said the authorities.

Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said 30 National Guard were patrolling in Culiacan, 370 miles north-west of Mexico City, when they were fired on from a house.

After returning fire the authorities entered the house where they found four cartel members, including Ovidio Guzman, who is accused of drug trafficking in the US.

But men armed with machine guns and sniper rifles quickly surrounded the home in retaliation and gunfight broke out.

One started at 3.30pm and went on for around 20 minutes before a second one erupted.

Gunmen used burning vehicles to make roadblocks in and out of the city.

Footage on social media showed scenes resembling a war zone as masked gangsters rode on the back of trucks firing machine guns as vehicles burned.

People could be

avicious seen running for cover bullets flew around them. Photos showed a number of blood-covered bodies strewn across various streets. Officials said eight people were killed in the shootout including one civilian, one member of the National Guard, one prisoner and five attackers. Cristobal Castaneda, state public security secretary, said 27 as inmates escaped from a jail during the chaos. The battle lasted for four hours until the patrol was eventually overpowered.

The decision was taken to set the crook free and to withdraw forces to save the lives of the National Guard, Mr Durazo said. A lawyer for El Chapo’s family, José Luis González Meza, said the family told him: “Ovidio is alive and free.”

He and brothers, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, run the cartel after dad Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was jailed.