Four Mexicans die in armed brawl over a pothole

MEXICO CITY, Oct 11 (Reuters) Four Mexicans were killed when a dispute between two Tzotzil Indian families over a pothole in the street escalated into a full-blown shootout.

One of the families closed off the cracked concrete and mud road in the town of Banelos in the poor southern state of Chiapas to fill in a hole left by heavy rain.

That angered a family with a transport business who needed to get their truck through, the Mexican daily Reforma said yesterday.

Insults led to blows and finally the two families shot at each other using various caliber guns and a hefty AR-15 rifle, Reforma said. Shootings are not uncommon in Mexico's little-policed indigenous regions, where many take the law into their own hands.

A photo showed somber-looking locals standing in two groups on either side of the pothole -- now filled in with rubble and fit to be driven over again.

REUTERS SAM BST0831