Conflicting versions over incident in Tamaulipas

The Tamaulipas government reported that the alleged clash held in the morning in the shopping "Diamante" area of Reynosa was nothing but a road accident, and not a shootout between armed civilians and federal forces.

"There was not a situation of violence, it was a simple car crash and that is the report of the state judiciary," indicated a spokesperson of the state government.

Nevertheless, a source from the Expert Services unit of the Office of the State Attorney General confirmed that the situation erupted from a chase by the federal forces of civilians travelling on board a Hummer truck, and that there had been gunfire.

The clash began past 11:00 a.m. between the crossing between the Hidalgo boulevard and Fuente de Diana street, in the Las Fuentes neighborhood, just opposite shopping center Plaza Real.

The yellow Hummer crashed with a Cherokee truck and was burnt to cinders, and two armed civilians died.

Witnesses confirmed that there were gunshots and two people were seeing lying on the pavement, and three more were arrested.

When the calm returned, people came from the mall and took photographs of the situation, but were pushed back by the federal forces.

Later, the Federal Police, the Army, and Navy cordoned the area, guarding the two vehicles and arresting three people.