British woman is seriously injured and her partner is shot dead

A British woman has been seriously injured in a shooting after armed intruders broke into her home near Mexico’s Riviera Maya Caribbean coastline.

The 32-year-old expat was airlifted to a hospital in the resort of Playa del Carmen with gunshot wounds after authorities received a 911 call.

A man described how her partner was shot dead in the incident at a jungle ranch the couple are understood to have owned in Lazaro Cardenas, one of the eleven municipalities that make up the state of Quintana Roo.

He was initially described locally as British but is believed to be German.

State prosecutors in Quintana Roo have confirmed they are probing Friday’s incident.

The incident took place at a jungle ranch the couple are understood to have owned in Lazaro Cardenas (file image of the Playa del Carmen resort)

A spokesman said: ‘Quintana Roo’s State Prosecution Service has launched an investigation into an incident that occurred in the early hours of Friday in which two foreigners were attacked with firearms in a jungle area of the municipality of Lazaro Cardenas.’

The ranch where the shooting occurred has been locally named as La Esperanza, which translates into English as Hope.

No arrests are yet thought to have been made.

In March last year British businessman Chris Cleave, 54, was shot dead in front of his daughter Chloe, 14, as he drove out of the gated residential estate in Playa del Carmen where he lived less than an hour’s drive south of Cancun in his red Audi.

The estate agent, originally from Truro in Cornwall, had received death threats before he was assassinated and is thought to have been targeted for standing up to extortion attempts by a cartel.

Two men, an 18-year-old and a 30-year-old who fled the murder scene on a motorbike after Mr Cleave was shot at close-range in traffic, were arrested. It was not clear on Sunday morning whether they have yet been formally charged over the horrific killing.