Indian travel blogger killed in shootout between rival gangs in Mexico

In an unfortunate turn of events, a California-based Indian-origin woman was killed in Mexico's Tulum, in a shootout between two gangs on Wednesday, October 20. The woman had travelled to Mexico to celebrate her birthday. 

Anjali Ryot, the victim was killed along with a German tourist, Jennifer Henzold, amid the crossfire. 

Anjali, who was originally from Himachal Pradesh, India lived in San Jose, California and had arrived in Tulum on Monday. She was a travel blogger and had been working as a senior site reliability engineer with LinkedIn since July. She had previously worked with Yahoo as well.

On Wednesday, October 20, When the incident took place, Anjali among other tourists was dining on the terrace of La Malquerida. Suddenly, four men armed with assault rifles opened fire in the premises that led to killings and injuries of locals and tourists as per a Spanish newspaper, El Pais.

As per authorities, the shootout took place between rival gangs of drug peddlers and Anjali and her friends were collateral victims. Anjali and Jennifer were killed, while others were injured. 

Anjali's family who resides in Himachal Pradesh have suffered a shock after hearing about their daughter's death. The family has requested the Mayor of Tulum to send Anjali's body back to India as soon as possible. 

Anjali had gone to Tulum with her husband Utkarsh Shrivastava to celebrate her 30th birthday.