Mexico's three year long narcotics war had its deadliest night yet as fourteen Mexican drug gang members were killed and eight others were injured in a gun fight near the U.S. border on Saturday.

Rival groups of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border fought each other with high powered weapons in the early hours of the morning, police said.

The bodies were scattered along the road in pools of blood and the faces of many of the dead were destroyed beyond recognition.

Police were only able to arrest six men from the survivors as the remainder escaped. 

The army in Tijuana said it was on high alert for reprisals against soldiers and federal police following the shootout and the ensuing arrest.

"The risk of attacks against our agents after an event like this is extremely high," said Lt. Col Julian Leyzaola, Tijuana's police chief.

The Arellano Felix gang, the long time dominant drug-trafficking organization in Tijuana, has recently been under attack from a rival gang from the Pacific state of Sinaloa, led by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

About 190 people have been killed in Tijuana so far this year. In 2007, there were more than 2,500 drug killings across Mexico and there have been more than 900 this year.