By Jared Taylor

LA BLANCA, Texas (Reuters) - Masked gunmen killed three men and wounded eight others when they opened fire on an illegal cockfighting ring in southern Texas, the local sheriff said Thursday.

Two to four gunmen ambushed the rooster fight Thursday morning shortly after midnight, shooting "indiscriminately" into a group of spectators behind a remote farmhouse about 20 miles northeast of McAllen, Texas, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino.

Witnesses told investigators a chaotic scene erupted when the masked men opened fire at the cockfighting operation, sending people into nearby woods to hide while others fled in vehicles, Trevino said. That contaminated much of the evidence at the scene, making it difficult for investigators to reconstruct the attack, he said.

"This has to be the crime scene from hell," Trevino said. "It was a chaotic situation."

Investigators remained at the scene early Thursday morning, using a police dog to scour the area and search for other possible victims who may have fled into the brush, Trevino said.

The eight men wounded in the ambush remained at area hospitals, the sheriff said. The three dead all suffered multiple gunshot wounds, he said.

The sheriff had no details about the identities of the victims. Continued...