MEXICO CITY, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Hooded gunmen firing automatic weapons shot dead the mayor of a popular resort town near the Mexican capital on Saturday in an apparent drug gang attack, Mexican media said.

The killers opened fire on a car carrying Salvador Vergara, mayor of the town of Ixtapan de la Sal, and hit him with at least 15 bullets, the El Universal daily said in its online edition.

The mayor's town is a popular weekend getaway for Mexico City residents attracted by hot spring waters.

The paper said the assailants belonged to The Zetas, the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel based in northeastern Mexico just south of Texas.

Some 3,000 people have been killed in Mexico this year in violence between rival drug cartels. A military-led campaign against the traffickers by President Felipe Calderon has failed to halt the rise in killings. (Reporting by Cyntia Barrera, editing by Anthony Boadle)

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