Mexico gunfight near Texas border leaves over a dozen dead

Mexican state police clashed Saturday with a group of heavily armed gang members in the northern town of Villa Union, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) from the US border, local authorities said.

Four officers died and six were wounded in the hour-long confrontation in the state of Coahuila. At least 10 of the shooters were killed, Coahuila Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme said.

The group reportedly entered the town of 3,000 inhabitants in a convoy of pickup trucks before storming local government buildings at around midday.

Speaking outside the bullet-ridden town mayor's office, Governor Riquelme told reporters the state had acted "decisively" to repel the gunmen. He said they were members of the Cartel of the Northeast, which is from the neighboring state of Tamaulipas.

A number of municipal workers were missing, he added.

The violence comes as Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador marks one year in office. He was elected in 2018 on a promise to tackle gang-related crime and has come under mounting pressure after a series of recent attacks.

Three women with US citizenship and six of their children were killed in a drug cartel ambush last month in northern Mexico.

The country's murder rate has risen to record levels — federal officials say there have been 29,414 homicides so far in 2019, compared to 28,869 in the same period of 2018.