Mexico: Group missing after attack in Puerto Vallarta

A group visiting Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta was apparently attacked by suspected members of an organized crime gang, and one was killed and ors have disappeared and may have been kidnapped, Jalisco state authorities reported Saturday.

Jalisco state prosecutor Gerardo Octavio Solis said incident happened July 18 in a residential area of city.

He said 13 or 14 people from central Mexico state of Guanajuato h split up into two groups after arriving in Puerta Vallarta and n met up in residential area, where y were confronted by attackers.

“re was a series of shots,” Solis said. “One person was left wounded at place, ors managed to flee — some on foot, ors in vehicles.”

wounded person was pronounced de at a hospital, and re has been no news about ors in group, he said. Several off-ro vehicles are also missing.

prosecutor called news conference hours after newspaper Reforma published a front page story on attack, saying visitors h been kidnapped.

Solis didn’t ruled that out.

“It’s part of investigations in conjunction with murder and ft, and we’re going to continue along this line,” he said.

However, he stressed re are no formal allegations of abduction. He said prosecutor’s office has h no contact with relatives of apparently missing people and has no knowledge of ransom requests.

Solis said everything points to attack being perpetrated by a “high-danger crime cell” linked to some organized crime group.

western state is base of Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is one of most violent crime organizations in Mexico and has been blamed for recent failed attack on Mexico City's police chief. It is engaged in a bloody fight over territory with or groups, including a local gang in neighboring Guanajuato known as Santa Rosa de Lima cartel.

prosecutor said none of attacked visitors was linked to any criminal activity, but ded that fear of cartels might be why no witnesses have appeared.

Reforma said some of visitors were business people.