Mexico gun battle ends in bloodbath

Six hostages have been killed during a three-hour gunbattle between police and members of a drugs gang in Mexico.

The victims, all male, were blindfolded and gagged and had been shot in the head.

Soldiers and armed police were sent in to help control the gunbattles that erupted when federal agents prepared to raid a house in Tijuana near the US border that police say was a shelter for a cell of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Three nearby schools were evacuated, and television pictures showed police running with small children in their arms while shots rang out.

A spokesman for the federal Public Safety Department said one gunman was killed in the shoot-out and four officers were injured.

Four gunmen - including a state police investigator and a Tijuana police officer - were arrested and flown to Mexico City for questioning.

The spokesman said officials recovered 11 automatic rifles and three bullet-proof vests inside the house.

Eight people - including two local police officers, a district commander, his wife and his 12-year-old daughter - have been killed in violence in Tijuana this week.

Staff at Tijuana's City Hall and police headquarters were evacuated after receiving death threats over a police radio frequency said a spokesman for city police.

Mexico has seen a rise in gang-related killings since the beginning of the year.

The Mexican government has described the violence as revenge for President Felipe Calderon's year-old crackdown on organised crime that sent thousands of soldiers and federal police into violence-plagued cities nationwide.

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