Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

This Mexican congressman has been shot to death in a car by a pair of gunmen on a motorbike.

Congressman Erik Juarez Blanquet, 39, was shot to death while in a car containing four other people in a busy area in the city of Morelia, in the central Mexican state of Michoacan.

According to witnesses, the gunmen were travelling on the motorbike and opened fire when they got close to the car.

Preliminary reports state Blanquet was shot four times, twice in the head and twice in the chest with a further injury to his cheek believed to have been caused by him trying to avoid the bullets. His body has been sent for a forensic examination.

Two other passengers in the car were injured and were taken to hospital while the two uninjured men from the car have been placed under police surveillance.

Two suspects have been arrested but they have not been named in reports.

Morelia’s Mayor Raul Moron Orozco said he would travel to the capital Mexico City to discuss the issue of security in the city.

The state of Michoacan is seen as a hub of drug trafficking in Mexico.

Blanquet was a local congressman for the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (Party of the Democratic Revolution, centre left). He was the Federal Congressman for District II of Puruandiro between 2015 and 2018.

The case is ongoing.

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