Two Canadian tourists killed in shooting at Mexican beach resort hotel

Two Canadians were killed and a third wounded in a shooting at their five-star hotel in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen, state authorities said.

The gunfire erupted after a group of Canadian guests got into an argument Friday at the upscale Xcaret Hotel, said Lucio Hernández Gutiérrez, the Public Secretary of Defense for the state of Quintana Roo.

The three victims were transported to the hospital, but two died, including one en route, authorities said.

Both of the guests who died had criminal records, state authorities said, citing information from the Canadian police.

Mexican authorities are searching for the gunman who is understood to have had a “long” criminal record, including robbery, drug and weapons offenses.

The suspect, who has not been identified, was seen on surveillance footage in a gray sweatsuit and black face mask in front of the pool.

The hotel said that the incident appeared to be “targeted and isolated.”

“We deeply regret the events that occurred at Hotel Xcaret this afternoon,” it said in a statement.

The shooting at the ritzy resort is just the latest brazen act of violence along Mexico’s famed Mayan Riviera,

In November, a shootout on the beach of Puerto Morelos left two suspected drug dealers dead.

In late October, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were killed in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers in Tulum.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has since sent nearly 1,500 members of the National Guard to reinforce security in the area.