MEXICO CITY, April 2 (Xinhua) -- A shootout between police and armed men in western Mexican state of Jalisco has left one police officer and eight alleged gang members dead, local authorities said on Monday.

The Jalisco attorney-general said that three other police officers were wounded in the fight in the town of Jalostotitlan on Sunday night.

The shootout seemingly took place when gang members travelling in two vans attacked local police as they patrolled streets in the neighborhood of Don Bosco, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The security forces responded to the attack and shot dead eight of the aggressors, whose bodies were found inside the vehicles and on the street.

One police officer died on the scene and three more suffering from bullet wounds were now in hospital, with one of them being taken to the state capital for emergency treatment.

The statement said that federal and state police had increased patrols to reestablish security in the area while an investigation into the attack was under way.

Jalisco has suffered from a rise in violence in early 2018, with the government attributing it to an internal power struggle within a drug cartel after a number of its leaders were arrested.