<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Sep 23, 2009
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>US closes Mexico border <!--10 min-->
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A boy rides through empty lanes at the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico. The crossing was closed after a shootout between suspected Mexican human traffickers and US agents. -- PHOTO: AP
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->TIJUANA (Mexico) - US authorities closed the world's busiest land border crossing on Tuesday after a shootout between suspected Mexican human traffickers and US agents, US officials said.
'The port is closed and will remain closed for several hours,' US Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Angelica Decima said after the incident at the congested San Ysidro crossing between the Mexican city of Tijuana and San Diego.
The suspected smugglers shot across busy lines of traffic at US agents when they tried to stop three vans packed with about 70 illegal immigrants from crossing into the United States, the officials said.
The agents returned fire, and three people in the vans and a motorist were wounded, said Lauren Mack, a spokesman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mexico's violent drug gangs are increasingly moving into the lucrative people-smuggling business, but tight US border security is forcing them to take bigger risks to get narcotics and illegal immigrants into the United States.
Tuesday's brazen attempt was unprecedented at the heavily guarded crossing where helicopters circle overhead and armed agents with dogs keep watch at a series of staggered checkpoints.
All the illegal immigrants were arrested and taken into custody and the crossing, a major smuggling corridor for narcotics and illegal immigrants, was shut while police carried out the investigation.
Some 90 million people a year use the California-Mexico land border crossings, with almost half the traffic going through San Ysidro alone.
Angry drivers started blaring car horns as a huge traffic jam built up on the Mexican side while US agents signalled them to turn round.
US officials are directing motorists to California's other six border crossing, which also handle trucks. -- REUTERS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>US closes Mexico border <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
A boy rides through empty lanes at the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico. The crossing was closed after a shootout between suspected Mexican human traffickers and US agents. -- PHOTO: AP
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->TIJUANA (Mexico) - US authorities closed the world's busiest land border crossing on Tuesday after a shootout between suspected Mexican human traffickers and US agents, US officials said.
'The port is closed and will remain closed for several hours,' US Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Angelica Decima said after the incident at the congested San Ysidro crossing between the Mexican city of Tijuana and San Diego.
The suspected smugglers shot across busy lines of traffic at US agents when they tried to stop three vans packed with about 70 illegal immigrants from crossing into the United States, the officials said.
The agents returned fire, and three people in the vans and a motorist were wounded, said Lauren Mack, a spokesman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mexico's violent drug gangs are increasingly moving into the lucrative people-smuggling business, but tight US border security is forcing them to take bigger risks to get narcotics and illegal immigrants into the United States.
Tuesday's brazen attempt was unprecedented at the heavily guarded crossing where helicopters circle overhead and armed agents with dogs keep watch at a series of staggered checkpoints.
All the illegal immigrants were arrested and taken into custody and the crossing, a major smuggling corridor for narcotics and illegal immigrants, was shut while police carried out the investigation.
Some 90 million people a year use the California-Mexico land border crossings, with almost half the traffic going through San Ysidro alone.
Angry drivers started blaring car horns as a huge traffic jam built up on the Mexican side while US agents signalled them to turn round.
US officials are directing motorists to California's other six border crossing, which also handle trucks. -- REUTERS
