5 killed in southern Mexico gunfight

At least five people have been killed and eight others wounded in a gun fight that broke out between two armed groups in southern Mexico.

Mexico’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the incident took place in Guerrero State’s town of Tlacotepec on Wednesday.

Mexican army forces were deployed to the town to provide security following the gunfight. No arrests were made, but army forces seized a number of guns and vehicles.

State authorities initially said that 10 people had been killed in the violence, but later changed the death toll to five.

Tlacotepec is located some 110 kilometers (around 70 miles) northwest of the state capital of Chilpancingo, an area used by gangs for the cultivation of opium poppy.

The state of Guerrero has been in the spotlight since 43 students went missing there last September. The students were presumed dead after reportedly being handed to drug gang members by corrupt police officers.

A major campaign pledge of Mexican President Enrique Nieto, who took office in December 2012, was to rid Mexico of gang violence, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people in the country since 2007. However, the stream of killings has continued unabated.