Security forces clashed with gunmen Monday in one of Mexico’s most violent states, killing 10 suspected criminals and injuring three police officers, authorities said.

The early morning shooting occurred during a joint police-military patrol in the Yuriria municipality Guanajuatoa central industrial region that is also home to warring drug cartels.

Guanajuato’s state security department initially reported that eight gunmen had been killed, but later said two more bodies were found with gunshot wounds.

“With this discovery, it is confirmed that 10 members (of the criminal group) have been neutralized,” it is stated.

Security personnel used “legitimate and proportionate use of force” during the confrontation, which left three officers with non-life-threatening injuries, the statement said.

A dozen firearms were seized along with several stolen vehicles and ballistic vests, it added.

Drug-related violence has killed more than 450,000 people in Mexico since the government sent in the military to fight human trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.

And gang-related violence has shown no signs of abating since Claudia Sheinbaum took office on October 1, becoming the first female president of Mexico.

She ruled out declaring war on the cartels and instead proposed continuing her predecessor’s strategy of using social policy to fight crime at its roots, while making better use of intelligence.

The recent bloodshed in Guanajuato

Guanajuatoan industrial and agricultural hub, has for years had the highest homicide rate of any of Mexico’s 32 states. The Jalisco cardor the locals Ganga Santa Rosa de Lima they were in a multi-year struggle for territory in the state.

Just last month, eight people were killed and two others wounded after gunmen stopped at a roadside stand in Guanajuato and opened fire on shoppers and passers-by.

On October 4, the bodies of 12 dead policemen — all carrying signs of torture and left with cartel messages — were found in different areas of Salamanca, a city in Guanajuato. The National Prosecutor’s Office also said that the perpetrators left messages in which the cartel claimed responsibility. The messages are they often remain on the victims’ bodies by cartels seeking to threaten their rivals or punish behavior they claim violates their rules.

The bodies were found less than 24 hours after armed attackers attacked a residential center for people suffering from addiction in the same municipality, killing four.

In June, the baby and toddler were among six members of the same family killed in Guanajuato. In April, he was a candidate for mayor killed on the street in Guanajuato just as she started the campaign.

The US State Department is urging Americans to reconsider traveling to Guanajuato. “Of particular concern is the high number of murders in the southern part of the country linked to cartel-related violence,” the ministry said in travel warning.