Gunmen ambushed a military patrol in western Mexico, killing two soldiers in a tense state mired in a standoff between a drug cartel and vigilantes.

Gunmen ambushed a military patrol in western Mexico, killing two soldiers in a tense state mired in a standoff between a drug cartel and vigilantes, a prosecutor said Monday.

The soldiers were on patrol Sunday on a road leading to the city of Apatzingan when they shot back at the unidentified assailants, Michoacan state's chief prosecutor Marco Vinicio Aguilera Garibay said.

Apatzingan is a bastion of the Knights Templar drug cartel, whose reign of violence in Michoacan prompted civilians to form self-defense forces in several towns almost a year ago.

The killing of the soldiers came amid heightened tensions after a prominent vigilante leader, Jose Manuel Mireles, was injured late Saturday in a plane accident.

A man died and three other people were injured in the crash, which took place hours after vigilantes seized the town of Paracuaro and disarmed a dozen local police officers.

More than 77,000 people have died in drug-related violence across Mexico since 2006.

In Michoacan, vigilante forces have spread despite state and federal government warnings that their expansion would not be tolerated.