ACAPULCO, Mexico, March 31, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – At least two people were killed as shootouts erupted during a Good Friday procession in the Mexican resort town of Acapulco, authorities said.
One of the shootouts broke out as police chased car thieves who had stolen a vehicle, and the other when gunmen attacked a local police station, said Roberto Alvarez Heredia, security spokesman for the west-coast state of Guerrero.
On both occasions, the gunshots caused throngs of people watching the Good Friday procession to run in terror or throw themselves to the ground.
“People were screaming, running, crying. I managed to get about 15 people into my house to get them out of the street, because the gunfire was really intense,” a local resident told AFP.
The Good Friday ceremony in Acapulco is one of the most famous in deeply Catholic Mexico, where each year communities stage elaborate and bloody reenactments of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Guerrero is one of the states hardest hit by the wave of drug cartel-fueled violence sweeping Mexico, which registered a record 25,000 murders last year.