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AP - A shootout between rival gangs at a nightclub left seven people dead in a Mexican Gulf coast city besieged by drug-related battles, while rumors of gunfire prompted people to flee a street fair where singer Jenni Rivera had been about to perform.

Five men and two women were killed late Friday in the shootout between rival gangs at the nightclub in Tampico, the state government of Tamaulipas said on its Web site.

It gave no other details, and nobody was available for comment Saturday at the offices of the Tamaulipas state Public Safety Department or the prosecutors' offices.

Also Friday evening, thousands of people fled a fair in Tampico amid reports of a shooting just as Mexican star Jenni Rivera was about to perform, the daily newspaper Reforma reported. Reforma said security forces evacuated the crowd.

It was unclear if a shooting actually occurred.

On her Twitter page, Rivera said the crowd began fleeing three seconds before she got on stage. She said she didn't hear gunfire but "saw many people running."

"My security ... shouted at me not to go up and they pulled me and covered me," Rivera wrote. "Everyone on my team is OK."

Rivera said 18,000 people had shown up to hear her sing. Her publicist did not return telephone and e-mail requests for comment.

Mexico's brutal drug-gang violence has spread recently to Tamaulipas, a state that straddles Texas in the north and the Gulf of Mexico farther south. Authorities blame much of the violence on a bitter split between the Gulf cartel and its former ally, the Zetas drug gang.

At least 15 people were killed throughout the state Friday, capping a bloody week in which cartels attacked military positions and threw up roadblocks around army garrisons.

Five gunmen died early Friday in the latest shootout with soldiers in Reynosa, a Tamaulipas city across the border from McAllen, Texas.

On Friday night, armed men stormed a prison in Reynosa and killed three inmates, the state government said on its Web site. The gunmen arrived in 10 cars and exchanged gunfire with prison guards, the statement said.

The government said order has been restored at the prison but gave no other details.

Security at many Mexican prisons is notoriously poor. On occasion, drug gangs have easily entered prisons to free allies, either because guards are too frightened to put up a fight or because they have been paid off.

Elsewhere in Mexico, four people were kidnapped Friday night in the resort city of Acapulco and released an hour later when their captors realized they had targeted the wrong people, the Guerrero state Public Safety Department said in a statement Saturday.

The four included three tourists from Mexico City who had traveled to Acapulco on vacation for Easter week, the statement said. One was a 16-year-old boy.

South of Acapulco, the bullet-ridden bodies of three men were found dumped on the side of the highway between the towns of San Jose and Caridad, the safety department said.


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It seems as Tijuana / Baja border areas have gotten the worst violence under control it has simply moved to other parts of Mexico. Sad...

However, no place is immune to random violence.

4 men killed at Valley Village restaurant were targeted, LAPD says | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

That can't be right. First it's not Baja/Mexico and second I didn't notice any Hispanic surnames listed in the article...

Been a while since I've been out in the San Fernando Valley... but, would say.. many a day that I got off the freeway in some areas .. thought I had been transported to: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and a few other Countries to the south of the United States...

Armenian gangs, DUH!!! Hayk Yegnanyan, 25, Sarkis Karadjian, 26, Harut Baburyan, 28, and Vardan Tofalyan, 31.... "Councilman Paul Krekorian"

The East Valley, and over to Glendale, has a huge Armenian population, and has for many years.