Two Canadians were killed and a third injured in a shooting at their five-star hotel in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen, state authorities said.
The gunfire erupted after a group of Canadian guests got into an argument at the upscale Xcaret hotel on Friday, said Lucio Hernández Gutiérrez, public secretary of defense for the state of Quintana Roo.
All three victims were taken to hospital, but two died, including one en route, authorities said.
Both deceased guests had criminal records, state authorities said, citing information from Canadian police.
Mexican authorities are looking for the shooter who is believed to have a ‘long’ criminal record, including robberies, drug and weapons offences.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was seen in surveillance footage in a gray tracksuit and black mask outside the pool.
The hotel said the incident appeared to be “focused and isolated”.
“We deeply regret the events that took place at the Xcaret Hotel this afternoon,” he said in a statement.
The shooting at the luxury resort is just the latest brazen act of violence along Mexico’s notorious Riviera Maya,
In November, a shootout on the beach in Puerto Morelos left two suspected drug traffickers dead.
In late October, two tourists – one an India-born Californian travel blogger and the other German – were killed in the apparent crossfire from rival drug dealers in Tulum.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has since sent nearly 1,500 members of the National Guard to bolster security in the region.
With post wires
