Holidaymakers expecting sunshine and seaside calm inwestern Mexicoinstead found themselves sheltering indoors as cartel violence erupted across several states following the death of one of the country's most powerful drug lords.

The killing ofNemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, triggered retaliatory attacks that disrupted cities, highways, and tourist hotspots alike.

In the destinations where tourists flock, including Puerto Vallarta, residents and tourists described scenes that quickly shifted from normal daily life to chaos.

Footage and eyewitness testimonies captured cars being set on fire and dense smoke rising thereafter above parts of the city amid spreading reports that the cartel leader had been killed during a security operation.

Some visitors claimed that the unrest fell out of the blue. Marc-André, a Canadian content creator who resides in Puerto Vallarta with his wife and two children, reported that the usually calm resort town 'looked like it was an absolute war zone.'

In a video on his YouTube channel, More Life Diaries, Marc-André said: 'There were fires everywhere, like hundreds of cars throughout the city were burning at the same time.'

🇲🇽 American tourists shocked as violence erupts in Mexico.pic.twitter.com/spUgF5Bepn

'It is quite heartbreaking to see what's going on,' he added.

California-born Paul Desmond, a long-time resident who had lived in Bucerías, a beach resort town in the state of Nayarit, described the scenario toBBC Newsas 'very unusual.' He said: 'This is not something that happens regularly in our daily lives here," he said. "It's unsettling, it's frustrating, it's ugly.'

Jeff Pass, a Canadian from Peterborough who travelled to the Puerto Vallarta area for a destination wedding, has now beenstranded there for more than eight days amid the unrest. He said hotel staff provided little information about the violence early on, but by Sunday afternoon, he could see fires burning across the city from the resort rooftop.

Source: International Business Times UK