Four officers and 17 drug cartel suspects shot dead near Mexican border with Texas

AT LEAST 21 people have died in gun battles between Mexican security forces and members of a suspected drug cartel near the Texas border.

Four police officers were killed and six injured in an hour-long firefight which erupted when an armed group invaded the town of Villa Union in a convoy of pickup trucks, storming local government offices on Saturday.

The clash also claimed the lives of 10 members of the cartel. Several other people were reported missing, including staff from the mayor’s office.

Then, in a second operation, seven more suspected cartel members were shot dead by Mexican security forces. Miguel Angel Riquelme, the Coahuila state governor, said the authorities had acted “decisively” in repelling the gunmen who were members of the Cartel of the Northeast.

Rapid gunfire could be heard on graphic video footage of Saturday’s battle, which was posted on social media.

It also showed vehicles alight, people frantically telling their loved ones not to venture into the street and plumes of smoke rising over the town, which has a population of 3,000.

Speaking outside the bullet-ridden town mayor’s office, Mr Riquelme said the security forces would remain in place until calm was restored. “These groups won’t be allowed to enter state territory,” he said. It is the latest in a series of clashes between the security forces and drug gangs.

According to the latest official figures, there have been 29,414 murders in Mexico so far in 2019, compared with 28,869 in the same period of 2018.

Last month, six children and three women from an American Mormon community died after being shot by a drugs cartel in an ambush. It is believed that they could have been victims of mistaken identity.

Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was elected Mexican president a year ago, has come under mounting pressure to tackle the endemic violence.