An Indian IT engineer and travel blogger was among four people killed in a gang shootout in northern Mexico, reports said.

Anjali Ryot, originally from the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, was killed along with another German tourist in the crossfire between two drug gangs in the Caribbean coast resort of Tulum on Wednesday night. 

Ryot, who had travelled with her husband to Mexico to celebrate her birthday which was to be on October 22, reached Tulum on Monday.

She described herself on her Instagram account as an engineer at LinkedIn and travel blogger from Himachal Pradesh, living in San Jose, California.

Ryot has been working as a senior site reliability engineer on LinkedIn since July and worked earlier with Yahoo, according to reports. 

Ryot’s brother Ashish Ryot has asked the mayor of Tulum to speed up procedures to repatriate his body, the the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported.

Ashish urged the authorities for help so that his visa was approved and he could enter Mexico to take his sister’s body back to India for her last rites.

On Wednesday night, Ryot and four other foreign tourists were dining on the terrace of La Malquerida restaurant when four men armed with assault rifles fired at an adjoining table in the premises around 10:30 pm, El Pais reported.

Ryot and the German woman were killed. Three others from Germany and the Netherlands were wounded. Authorities point to a confrontation between rival organised crime gangs adding Ryot and her friends were collateral victims.

The fight was between two rival groups that operate drug sales in the area, the Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Several drug cartels operate in the Mexican state, which is known for a lucrative retail drug market and as a landing spot for drug shipments, the Associated Press reported from Mexico City.

Three drug cartel members killed in chase, shooting

A car chase and shootout between gang members and law enforcement near Mexico’s northern border left three members of the powerful Gulf Cartel dead along with one bystander, officials said on Saturday.

The incident began on Friday evening in the border city of Matamoros, when military and police officers attempted to halt several suspicious vehicles, officials from the northern state of Tamaulipas said in a statement.

Gang members fired on the security forces, set up 15 blockades across the city and set fire to several cars. Some also took off on foot into downtown Matamoros.

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It was the second major incident in Matamoros in less than a week. Last Sunday, videos on social media showed a line of cars speeding through the city accompanied by rapid gunfire and flying bullets.

From 2019 until March of this year, Matamoros had been home to a sprawling camp of migrants who were ordered to stay in Mexico while waiting for asylum claims to be processed in the United States under a Trump-era policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).

The programme has been heavily criticised by migrant advocates for sending asylum seekers to crime-ridden border cities, such as Matamoros, for lengthy waits.

US President Joe Biden has attempted to end the policy, but his administration for now is taking steps to comply with a court ruling to keep the policy in place as of mid-November.

(With inputs from agencies)