Another shooting incident in Cancun: Armed men on jet skis opened fire on the beach
Many tourists who spent time at the Oasis Palm resort started running for their lives when, according to reports, about five men with firearms approached the beach and started firing in the air
Tourists at a resort in the heart of Cancun, Mexico, were forced to flee for their lives when gunmen on jet skis stormed the beach and opened fire. Luckily, no one was injured in the incident.
National Guard personnel off the coast of Cancun (Photo: Getty Images)
According to eyewitnesses, five men in military uniforms rotted with jet skis to the beach of the resort defined as “family-friendly” and fired about 20 shots into the air. While the vacationers were fleeing for their lives, the suspects got off the jet skis, changed into civilian clothes and fled the scene.
The American tourist, Zayn Jones, who was on the beach at the time of the incident, told a news site that: “Fortunately, no one was hurt – but it could have ended quite differently. It feels very bad that your children are here.”
Andy Geerich and Kerry Arms of Minnesota also described what happened on the beach. “There was a late reaction, maybe for five seconds – and then everyone started running around, screaming, crying and running.”
Earlier in the day, the US State Department issued a warning advising American tourists in Cancun and the popular Quintana Rouge to “exercise extreme caution.”
The shooting happened on Tuesday at the Oasis Palm resort, and it marks just one case out of many of the shooting incidents in the popular tourist area of Mexico. As a result, local authorities deployed 1,500 National Guard personnel to secure the area.
Tourists fled the shooting that took place in early November, and locked themselves inside the hotel (Photo: Reuters)
Last month, on a tourist beach in Cancun, a shootout broke out between rival Mexican drug gangs. In that incident, according to local police, one tourist was lightly injured.
Shortly before, in another incident, two tourists, from India and Germany, were killed in Tulum, about 130 kilometers from Cancun, when they were caught in a gunfight between gangs in the area of a popular restaurant. A German tourist and a Dutch tourist were also injured in the same incident.
As mentioned, in response to the escalating shootings, Mexican authorities have created the National Guard’s Tourist Battalion, to protect Cancun and nearby resorts, and will be deployed mainly in Nito Juarez, Solidridad and Tulum – which mark a significant source of revenue for the country.
“This battalion will provide security for the entire tourist area,” then-Defense Minister Avis Crescensio Sandoval said.
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