MORELIA, Mexico -- Gunmen apparently from two rival drug gangs fought a ferocious gunbattle on a highway in a western Mexico state that killed 28 men Wednesday, authorities said.
The attorney general's office in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit said the gunfight started about 5 p.m. near the town of Ruiz, 500 miles (805 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City.
Police initially responded to a citizen complaint of a kidnapping by a group of armed men in a nearby city who reportedly fled on the federal highway, the prosecutors office said. As the officers headed toward the scene, they heard a second report of a shootout involving the same men, it said.
Police found 28 men lying dead and four others wounded when they arrived. Ten vehicles were abandoned and bullet casings from high-powered weapons were scattered about.
The statement released late Wednesday by the attorney general's office gave no further details.
Earlier in the day, an official in the nearby western state of Michoacan said drug cartel violence had prompted as many as 700 frightened villagers there to flee hamlets and take refuge at five shelters set up at a church, event hall, recreation center and schools.
It is at least the second time a large number of rural residents have been displaced by recent drug violence in Mexico. In November, about 400 people in the northern border town of Ciudad Mier took refuge in the neighboring city of Ciudad Aleman following cartel gunbattles. That shelter has since been closed and most have returned to their homes.
The attorney general's office in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit said the gunfight started about 5 p.m. near the town of Ruiz, 500 miles (805 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City.
Police initially responded to a citizen complaint of a kidnapping by a group of armed men in a nearby city who reportedly fled on the federal highway, the prosecutors office said. As the officers headed toward the scene, they heard a second report of a shootout involving the same men, it said.
Police found 28 men lying dead and four others wounded when they arrived. Ten vehicles were abandoned and bullet casings from high-powered weapons were scattered about.
The statement released late Wednesday by the attorney general's office gave no further details.
Earlier in the day, an official in the nearby western state of Michoacan said drug cartel violence had prompted as many as 700 frightened villagers there to flee hamlets and take refuge at five shelters set up at a church, event hall, recreation center and schools.
It is at least the second time a large number of rural residents have been displaced by recent drug violence in Mexico. In November, about 400 people in the northern border town of Ciudad Mier took refuge in the neighboring city of Ciudad Aleman following cartel gunbattles. That shelter has since been closed and most have returned to their homes.
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