This is the terrifying moment a family in Mexico cowers behind their car as they are caught in a deadly shootout between police and drugs cartel members.

The gun battle left six gang members dead and two police officers injured as they exchanged fire across a road. In the state of Sonora on 20th January.

Video footage recorded from a car further down the road shows the family desperately cowering behind the rear of their car as bullets fly around them.

Ahead of them is a convoy of police vehicles who were confronting cartel gunmen.

As the family gets as far under their car as they can manage, automatic gunfire can be heard going off all around them as the footage ends.

The local Attorney General’s Office later said six cartel members were shot dead in the firefight with officers from the Ministerial Criminal Investigation Agency (AMIC).

Local media reported that the heavily armed drugs gang members were confronted by federal. State and municipal officers while they were travelling in several vehicles.

They said the gangsters had tried to shoot their way out of a police checkpoint and the officers returned fire in one of Mexico’s most notorious drugs trafficking regions.

Two AMIC agents were reportedly injured in the shootout and are receiving medical treatment.

Local media reported that they are in a stable condition.

The identities of the criminals have not been released.