Six people shot dead in Mexican industrial hub

Six people, including two women, were found shot dead in Mexico’s northeastern city of Monterrey, home to major international corporations as well as rival drug gangs, authorities said Tuesday.

The victims’ bodies were found abandoned in a residential area, most of them with their hands bound, according to the state prosecutor’s office.

The incident was reported shortly after midnight by local residents who heard gunshots, it said.

Monterrey, located about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the US border in the state of Nuevo Leon, is an industrial powerhouse that hopes to benefit from a new wave of foreign investment.

Electric car giant Tesla plans to build a giant new factory outside the city — part of the “nearshoring” trend of US companies bringing production sites closer to their home market.

Mexico has recorded more than 350,000 murders — most of them blamed on organized crime — since the launch of a controversial military operation to combat drug trafficking in 2006.

On Monday, the security minister in the violence-wracked northeastern state of Tamaulipas, Hector Joel Villegas, survived a gun attack, authorities said.

He resumed his activities on Tuesday with increased security, they added. (BSS/AFP)