Drug traffickers, Mexican police trade shots across from U.S. border

By Nick Valencia, CNN
August 21, 2010 9:38 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- A "major gunbattle" between drug traffickers and Mexican federal police broke out Saturday evening in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just 30 yards from the U.S. border at El Paso, Texas, causing U.S. authorities to cordone off a section of the city, according to a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.

Three police officers were injured and one armed suspect was killed, federal police spokesman Ramon Salinas said.

First reports of gunshots came in from border patrol agents around 7 p.m. (9 p.m. ET), U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero told CNN.

"The gunbattle is still going on right now," Cordero said 30 minutes after the incident began, just south of the University of Texas at El Paso.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries on the U.S. side of the border, Cordero said.

U.S. authorities blocked off a section of Paisano Street, which runs parallel to the Rio Grande.

There were no reports that any bullets from the gunfight crossed into the El Paso area.

The incident comes less than two months after shots fired from a gunbattle originating in Juarez crossed into El Paso and hit City Hall, damaging the building.

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