Mexican footballers killed in gun attack

Two Mexican soccer players were killed in a gun attack against their team bus in a spasm of violence that left four others dead in troubled Guerrero state, officials said Saturday.

The bus of third division club Chilpancingo Hornets was looking for a spot to park in the restive town of Iguala late Friday when unidentified gunmen opened fire, state prosecutors said.

Some team members were wounded in the shooting, including the manager, who was out of danger. Authorities retracted earlier reports that the driver had been killed.

Mexico's football federation expressed sorrow over the shooting and asked authorities to promptly investigate what happened.

The attack came amid social tensions in the town, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Mexico City, where protesting student from a teachers college had tried to seize three buses.

One student was shot dead by municipal police who had chased them after they took the buses, said the United Front of Teacher Colleges of Guerrero.

Another 10 people were wounded and 20 detained in the clash, the organization said.

A group of students was fired upon later in the day by unknown gunmen using high-caliber rifles, killing one student, a woman and a taxi driver, the Guerrero state prosecutor's office said.

Some 300 Iguala municipal officers were detained and their weapons were confiscated by prosecutors, said state public security secretary Leonardo Vazquez.

The state government condemned the violence in a brief statement and deployed investigators to the town of 140,000 people.

Guerrero is one of Mexico's poorest and most violent states, marked by drug gang turf wars and frequent protests by teachers resisting reforms.

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