Tijuana (Mexico): Officials have found six bodies inside a Tijuana house where gunmen took refuge during a chaotic three-hour shootout with soldiers and police that forced school evacuations, in a week of surging violence across the border from San Diego.

Investigators were trying to determine if the bodies belonged to gunmen or possible kidnaping victims kept at the house, said a spokesman for Baja California state prosecutors who was not authorised to be quoted by name.

Earlier, Baja California state attorney general Rommel Moreno said in a statement yesterday that one gunman was killed and four officers wounded during the shootout. Moreno said five gunmen were arrested and that no civilians were wounded.

The firefight began when federal agents prepared to raid a house in a Tijuana neighborhood near the US border.

Television showed police carrying small children while shots rang out as three nearby schools were evacuated. Dozens of soldiers, state and local police were sent in to backup the federal agents.

Already this week, gunmen shot and killed eight people in Tijuana, including two local police officers, as well as a district commander, his wife and his 12-year-old daughter.

Also yesterday, employees at Tijuana s City Hall and police headquarters were evacuated after receiving death threats over a police radio frequency, said Abraham Sarabia, a spokesman for city police.

Mexico has seen a spike 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 organized crime that sent thousands of soldiers and federal police into violence-plagued cities nationwide.
Source : PTI