Mexican actress shot dead by gunman riding a motorcycle

Mexican actress Tania Mendoza, 42, who was kidnapped in 2010 with her husband and son, was shot dead in the city of Cuernavaca in central Mexico by a gunman riding a motorcycle, local authorities said Wednesday.

A source in the Morelos attorney general’s office said Mendoza was attacked on Tuesday afternoon while she was waiting for her son to come out of a gym. According to witnesses, the attacker arrived on his motorcycle and immediately shot the actress in front of her minor son.

Mendoza, who was a model, participated in the 2005 movie “La Mira Reina del Sur”, which was based on a novel by Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte.

Criminal groups linked to the drug trade are active in Cuernavaca.

Mexico is facing a wave of violence in which more than 300,000 people have been killed since December 2006, according to official figures that attribute most of these crimes to the drug trade.