A shootout between soldiers and suspected drug dealers in northeast Mexico left 25 of the suspects dead, the regional military said Thursday.

After the fighting ended, soldiers captured a cache of weaponry, including 25 rifles, four .40-caliber grenades, 4,200 cartridges of different calibers, 532 magazines for diverse arms and 23 vehicles, two of them painted to look like military vehicles, the military said in a news release.

The incident began when anti-drug forces flying over Ciudad Mier, just south of the Rio Grande, observed armed people in front of a building, it said.

Once they saw they were being observed, the armed people drove off in various vehicles, the military said.
Soldiers were dispatched on the ground and, when they approached the building, they were greeted with gunfire and responded with their own, the military said.

The soldiers also freed three people who were being held by the suspects, the military said.
Two of the soldiers were wounded.