Two Canadians died and a third was wounded Friday in a gun battle in the Mexican vacation resort of Cancun, authorities said.

The fight broke out at the Xcaret hotel complex when a Canadian man opened fire at three compatriots.

Mexican officials quoted Canadian authorities as saying the people involved in the gunfight -- apparently guests at the hotel -- held criminal records for theft, drugs and weapons possession.

Lucio Hernandez, a public safety official in Quintana Roo state, which includes Cancun, said the shoot-out began after an argument among the Canadians.

Violence linked to drug trafficking has been a scourge for Mexico's Caribbean coast for years.

Two suspected drug dealers died in a gun battle at a hotel beach near Cancun in November last year.

And in October two tourists from Germany and India were killed by stray bullets during a shoot-out between drug dealers in Tulum, another town in the same area.

Mexico recorded 33,308 murders last year, marking a 3.6 percent decrease compared with 2020, in a country long plagued by cartel violence.

Since 2006 -- when the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched a controversial anti-drug military operation -- Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders, according to official figures.