Blockades, hooded men armed with long weapons, ordinary citizens who sheltered for hours in supermarkets and other businesses.
These are the images that have been produced in broad daylight in San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the State of Chiapas, in southern Mexico, this Tuesday.
At the center of the chaos is a struggle for control of the northern market, the largest in the city, according to the first reports in the local press.
The armed groups marched around the market, fired shots into the air and made graffiti to demand the departure of the manager of the premises.
In the photographs that have been shared on social networks, it is shown how they holster rifles and cut cartridges without any security element stopping them.
There are also videos of streets blocked off with double-trailer trucks on the northern flank of the city, an area where the sale of stolen merchandise is common.
“Why don't you go face them?
Why are they leaving us alone?”, asks a man to police officers, in a video shared by the journalist Isaín Mandujano.
"We are lying on the floor because the intense bursts are heard," says a woman in another recording.
"Insecurity, more terrible every day," she says.
According to these testimonies, the main individuals identified are members of the Los Motonetos gang, a group with a strong presence in the north and west of the city.
The inhabitants of San Cristóbal, the main tourist destination in Chiapas, denounced that the violent acts began after 10 in the morning.
The blockades and shootings have occurred a day after the Army announced the deployment of some 500 soldiers in the Los Altos area, near the city, other Chiapas journalists point out.
After several hours of uncertainty, other images circulated of a convoy with elements of the National Guard, the state Police and soldiers who were on their way to quell the disturbances.
So far, however, no corporation or official instance has offered an explanation of what happened.
There is also no information on people injured or detained.
subscribe here
to the
newsletter
of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of this country