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© Reuters.
By Sarah Morland
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – “That is an assault airplane, Dad,” mentioned considered one of David Tellez’s younger kids as they noticed Mexican army plane touching down alongside their Aeromexico passenger airplane early on Thursday.
Then the gunfire started.
“As we had been accelerating for take-off, we heard gunshots very near the airplane, and that is once we all threw ourselves to the ground,” Tellez mentioned after the incident within the northern metropolis of Culiacan.
Violence broke out on Thursday all through Culiacan after the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, the son of the infamous drug lord often called El Chapo, and a senior member of the Sinaloa cartel.
Aeromexico mentioned no one on Tellez’s flight had been harm. The Culiacan airport closed shortly after, as safety forces patrolled town, which was strewn with burned autos, trying to comprise the violent backlash.
Tellez, 42, was touring together with his spouse and youngsters, aged 7, 4 and 1, after spending Christmas with household.
He instructed Reuters he had reached the airport for his 8:24 a.m. flight with out incident, regardless of encountering street blockades arrange after in a single day shootouts. Though Guzman’s arrest had not but been confirmed, nervous safety guards urged vacationers to enter rapidly.
“Authorities weren’t saying something,” he mentioned by cellphone.
Tellez hid in an airport rest room together with his household after listening to that gang members had been within the airport. The rumor turned out to be false, and the Aeromexico vacationers boarded rapidly.
But, simply as flight AM165 to Mexico Metropolis was about to take off, a succession of army planes landed on the airstrip.
Tellez took out his cellphone, recording a number of movies that present two massive air pressure transport plane, smaller, fighter-like assault plane and army vehicles on the tarmac. Then gunshots started to echo within the distance.
A video circulating on social media, showing to seize the identical incident, confirmed passengers crouching low beneath their seats as a baby cried.
A flight attendant mentioned the engine had been hit, triggering a leak. The crew directed passengers to disembark, shifting them to a windowless ready room within the airport.
It’s not clear who was taking pictures at whom.
Tellez’s household plans to board one other flight on Friday, however till then, is staying put.
“We desire to remain on the airport till it is secure to go away,” he mentioned. “The town is worse. There may be quite a lot of taking pictures and confusion.”
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