Nine people died in Michoacan as a result of two clashes between security forces and armed men, the state Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) reported on Saturday.
Of the nine dead, eight were men whom authorities identified as possible criminals. The other was a municipal police officer who was injured and died in hospital.
The SSP said in a statement that the first confrontation occurred in the municipality of Sahuayo. There, on a road, elements of the National Guard detected a vehicle with men armed “with high-powered rifles.”
The guards began a chase, in which civilians lost control of their vehicle and crashed. In that event, four people died, and military and police seized four long weapons and one short.
The other confrontation occurred in the municipal capital of Jiquilpan, where men in a vehicle with Jalisco license plates shot at state and municipal police.
According to the SSP, the agents repelled the aggression, chased the car and, after that exchange of gunfire, four attackers died and the municipal policeman who died hours later was injured.
At the scene, long weapons, tactical clothing and bulletproof vests were seized.
The events add to the wave of violence facing Michoacán, where so far this year there have been shootings and events with multiple victims.
The most recent occurred in the municipality of Zinapécuaro, where an attack on a clandestine palenque caused the death of 20 people.
In February alone, Michoacán registered 250 intentional homicides, surpassing Guanajuato as the entity with the most crimes of this type in the country, according to the most recent report by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
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