Two Canadian tourists shot dead at Mexican resort
Violence erupted after argument between hotel guests, officials say
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Two Canadians were shot dead and another was wounded at a hotel in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on Friday.
Quintana Roo state security chief Lucio Hernández said in a tweet that the violence erupted after an “argument between hotel guests”.
Citing Canadian authorities, he added that the gunman as well as the two victims involved in the shooting at Hotel Xcaret had criminal records related to robbery, drug, and weapons offenses.
In a separate tweet, Mr Hernández also appealed for any information about the gunman, who was wearing a light gray sweatshirt and sweatpants. The security chief also shared a CCTV photograph of the shooter, who was also a guest at the hotel, on his profile.
A video of the incident has gone viral on the internet. It shows the bodies of the victims on the floor of the hotel’s restaurant.
The three victims, who have not been identified, were taken to a hospital, where two of them subsequently died.
Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that they were aware of reports that Canadian citizens had been affected by “an incident in Mexico”.
The country has reported a worrying number of similar attacks recently.
Earlier this week, in another shooting, two women from Texas were found tortured, shot, dismembered, and dumped by the side of a road in Mexico. The couple – 28-year-old Mexican citizens Nohemí Medina Martínez and Yulizsa Ramírez – had been living in El Paso but were visiting family in Ciudad Juárez when they were killed.
In another case this week, a Mexican photojournalist was shot in the head outside his home in the northern border city of Tijuana.
Some reports said that the shooting was connected to drug violence along the Mayan Riviera, Mexico’s famed tourist corridor. In November, a shootout on the beach of Puerto Morelos left two suspected drug dealers dead. In October, an Indian and a German, both tourists, were killed in crossfire in an alleged drug war.
Additional reporting by agencies
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