US boy, 13, shot dead on holiday in Mexico by bloodthirsty gangsters who ambushed his family’s car

A 13-year-old boy was shot dead in an ambush by armed gunmen while returning to the US after a family holiday to Mexico.

Three other people were injured in the attack just south of Texas on Saturday night.

The attorney general’s office in the state of Tamaulipas said the child was a US citizen and the parents were permanent residents of the US.

They did not release the victims’ names.

The family was travelling in a Chevrolet SUV with Oklahoma state plates, returning from a holiday visit to relatives in the state of San Luis Potosi.

The gunmen reportedly collided with the family to force them to stop.

When they failed to do so, the attackers fired at the victims and fled in another vehicle, according to El Universal.

The highway on which they were shot is considered high risk.

It runs through an area that’s disputed by criminal groups, including the Gulf Cartel and Zetas.

Some local outlets named the 13-year-old as Oscar Castillo López and his parents as Juanita Castillo López and José Silva Mendoza.

They identified the third injured victim as a 10-year-old.

In November, 13-year-old Devin Langford survived a deadly ambush in Mexico that saw his mother, two brothers, as well as nine women and children killed following an ambush in the Mexican state of Sonora.

Mexico’s government said it thought the victims were caught in the midst of a territorial dispute between an arm of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel and the rival Juarez Cartel.

Following the ambush, many of the Mormons who re-settled in Mexico fled the country.

More than 100 members of the tight-knit US religious community headed north to Arizona in an 18-vehicle convoy.

Bryce Langford, whose mother was one of those killed, said the community had become increasingly wary of cartel gunmen prowling near their isolated ranches.