Albino Gómez, a candidate for mayor in a southern Mexican municipality, was found alive after being kidnapped at gunpoint Sunday, the BBC reported.

Gómez was attacked by gunmen when he returned home after a campaign rally, the outlet reported. (RELATED: Mexican Officials Keep Meddling In Red States’ Efforts To Crack Down On Illegal Immigration)

Kidnapped Mexican mayoral candidate found alive https://t.co/Y8OL0vZala

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 27, 2024

Gómez’s campaign manager was killed in the attack and two others were wounded, the BBC noted, citing local media. The mayor of a nearby town urged Mexican authorities to “take the necessary action to safeguard the life of our colleague and those of his team,” the outlet reported. Mexico’s national elections coming up June 2 have been the most violent in the country’s recent history, with dozens of candidates killed and hundreds threatened, according to the BBC.

Nine people — including a child — died and 50 were injured after a stage collapsed last week at a rally for Jorge Alvarez Maynez, one of Mexico’s presidential candidates. Maynez is in third place in the polls for president, according to The Guardian. The odds-on favorite in the polls to win the presidential race is the former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, according to Americas Society Council of the Americas’. Sheinbaum comes from the same party as Mexico’s current president, the left-wing Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the outlet noted.

The BBC blamed Mexico’s criminal cartels as the source of these threats and murders of political candidates. At present, it is not known who seized Gómez and why, the BBC reported.