Six policemen killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

April 24, 2010 A shootout in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez has killed six police officers and a passerby, according to officials.

The incident started when gunmen ambushed two police vehicles at an intersection in the city, reportedly when the latter tried to stop three vehicles suspected of transporting drug gang hitmen. The civilian casualty was a seventeen-year-old girl who was walking by at the time of the shooting.

"There are six police and one civilian dead but there could be more," an officer who requested to remain anonymous said to the Agence France-Presse news agency. Police say nobody has yet been arrested, although two of the suspect cars have been recovered.

Ongoing conflicts among drug cartels and clashes with police in Ciudad Juarez have killed about 22,700 people since December 2006, according to the Associated Press.