ACAPULCO, Mexico, May 21, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Clashes between two armed groups left six civilians dead near Mexico's crime-plagued beachside city of Acapulco, authorities said Tuesday.

The violence erupted on Monday night in a town called Kilometro 30 located on a highway to Mexico City, the Guerrero state prosecutor's office said.

The victims were five men and an elderly woman who were caught in the crossfire, said municipal commissioner Adan Casarrubias.

Three people were injured.

Soldiers and police found weapons in an armored vehicle in the town, where several cars were set ablaze.

Armed men in at least three vehicles were involved in the confrontation, which terrified residents, Casarrubias said.

"Even if it's with pans, sticks, or whatever, we're going to fight for our town," he said.

In its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, Acapulco was a playground of the rich and famous.
Today the city once known as "the pearl of the Pacific" is blighted by criminal violence.

On Thursday, the administrator of a Facebook news page was gunned down in Acapulco.

Spiraling criminal violence, much of it linked to the drug trade, has claimed around 480,000 lives across Mexico since 2006.