At least nine people died in shootouts involving rival drug gangs in Reynosa, a border city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, that prompted the army to intervene, a military spokesman said.

Drug cartel gunmen blocked a number of the main avenues in Reynosa, located across the border from McAllen, Texas, an 8th Military Zone spokesman said.

The first shootout started around 6:00 a.m. Saturday on the Monterrey-Reynosa highway near the entrance to the border city, leaving four men dead inside an SUV.