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Mayor of Mexican city among five killed in shootout

VERACRUZ, Mexico The mayor of a southern Mexican city was one of five people killed today during a highway shootout in the Veracruz.

Officials are investigating whether the shootings were drug related.

Police found three bullet-ridden bodies alongside a road in the city of Veracruz and the remains of a fourth man inside a vehicle nearby.

A fifth victim was rushed to a hospital -- but died.

State interior secretary Reynaldo Escobar says Tadeo Manriquez, who was mayor of Ixtepec City in Oaxaca state, was among those killed.

Escobar says the mayor was apparently passing through Veracruz en route to another destination and may have been riding with his city's chief of police and his brother.

Investigators said the deaths appeared to have been the result of a running shootout that began on the highway between two groups.