Mexican soldiers open fire on migrant truck, six including Nepali killed

A soldier walks near an immigration checkpoint in Tapachula in Mexico's Chiapas state on June 8, 2019 [File: Marco Ugarte/AP Photo]

Mexico City, October 3 — The Mexican military has revealed that soldiers opened fire this week on a truck carrying dozens of migrants, killing six people.

Mexico’s Ministry of Defence announced in a press release on Wednesday that the incident took place near the town of Huixtla in the southern state of Chiapas the evening before, on October 1.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, “military personnel identified 33 migrants of Egyptian, Nepalese, Cuban, Indian, Pakistani and Arab nationality, of whom 4 had died, 12 injured and 17 unharmed”, according to the press release.

It added that two more people died after being transported to a local hospital.

The shooting took place about 41km (25 miles) from the city of Tapachula on the border with Guatemala, an area where many migrants and asylum seekers begin their perilous journey north through Mexico.

Immigrant rights groups say that violence and abuse at the hands of Mexican law enforcement and criminal groups are common.