Gunmen ‘storm five-star Hyatt hotel in Cancun’

Two people believed to be drug dealers have reportedly died following a shooting at a five-star hotel in Cancun that is popular with American tourists.

Guests were told to seek shelter at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun resort in Mexico.

Police said two men thought to be drug dealers had died in the shooting in the hotel’s beach area and no tourists had been seriously injured. 

The U.S. embassy in Mexico said on Thursday consulate officials were looking into social media reports of shots being fired at the hotel. 

Several people said on Twitter that guests were told by staff to hide at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun hotel because of an active shooter.

A U.S. embassy media representative told Reuters by email that the U.S. consulate in Merida in the Yucatan was trying to confirm the reports.

Mike Sington, a Twitter user whose biography says he is an executive at NBC Universal, told Reuters by direct message that he was hiding with other guests in a dark area of the hotel and that staff had not explained what was happening. 

Other guests told him they heard gunshots and that a gunman had been on the beach, he said.

Sington later tweeted that guests were taken out of hiding and brought to the hotel lobby, where they cried and hugged each other 

‘In hiding in the dark now. Was told active shooter on property. Paramedics are here,’ Sington said.

Sington later tweeted that guests were taken out of hiding and brought to the hotel lobby, where they cried and hugged each other. 

He later tweeted an update that hotel staff had told them a shooter had been apprehended. 

The U.S. embassy in Mexico said on Thursday consulate officials were looking into social media reports of shots being fired at the hotel (file image)