OTAY MESA : Shots From Mexico Miss Border Agents

Two Border Patrol agents were fired on Friday from Mexico as they investigated a vehicle drive-through attempt along the Otay Mesa border fence.

The U.S. Border Patrol reported that no one was hurt by the gunfire--two shots believed to have come from a high-powered semiautomatic assault rifle--and the agents did not return fire.

The agents were reportedly fired upon from high ground in Mexico while they investigated the damage done to a section of the border fence about 3 miles east of the Otay Mesa port of entry.

The investigators found that a hole about 6 feet high and 8 feet wide had been cut into the fence with an acetylene torch, leaving the upper part the fence intact. The lower part swung back and forth on hinged couplings in the steel material.

Another hole was being cut about 1 mile east of the San Ysidro Port of Entry but the culprits, who the Border Patrol believes are drug smugglers, hadn’t broken through yet. Both holes were repaired Friday by military work crews.

While examining the first hole, agents were startled by bullets that hit the ground about 150 feet away. A white pickup truck was seen leaving the area several hundred yards away on the Mexican side of the border, but agents weren’t sure if it was involved in the shooting.