3 nurses strangled in northern Mexico border state

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Police in the northern Mexico border state of Coahuila said Friday they found three sisters who worked in the government hospital system strangled to death, stirring further alarm in a country where attacks against health care workers have been reported across the country.

Two of the sisters were nurses at the Mexican Social Security Institute and the third was a hospital administrator, but there was no immediate official evidence that the attack was related to their work.

State police said their strangled bodies were found in a house in the city of Torreon, Coahuila. The Social Security Institute said they were killed Thursday.

The National Union of Social Security Employees called the killings were “outrageous and incomprehensible.”

In other parts of Mexico, nurses have had been hit, kicked off public transport or had cleaning fluids poured on them amid fears they might spread the novel coronavirus.

Mexican health authorities have denounced the attacks and urged medical personnel not to wear uniforms or scrubs on the street to avoid being targeted.