A Manitoban is sheltering at a restaurant in the Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta amid a sudden eruption of violence Sunday afternoon.

Global Affairs Canada has issued a travel advisory for the coastal city west of Mexico City and other parts of the Mexican state of Jalisco, saying there is a shelter-in-place order in the coastal resort city.

Jalisco Gov. Pablo Lemus Navarro said on social media the violence was triggered by a federal operation earlier that day in the municipality of Tapalpa, more than 100 kilometres southeast of Puerto Vallarta.

Manitoban Lorenzo Dufrane told CBC News he was checking out of his hotel when he noticed the commotion.

“The maids were coming in and they were crying,” he said.

“We get in our Uber and then in our Uber we had to keep … turning all these corners and stuff because in the distance we’d see cars and buses on fire.”

Navarro said people had set up road blocks and burned vehicles to halt government authorities. Public transport would be suspended until the situation was under control, he said.

Dufrane said he could see men on motorcycles armed with machine guns.

The Uber driver “was like, ‘No! Everything is shut down. The airport is shut down. We can’t drive you there,'” he said. “Everyone’s been kind of waved off the street.”

Dufrane said he was sheltering inside a restaurant with about 11 other people, mostly locals.

Flights between Winnipeg and Puerto Vallarta have been cancelled amid the surge in violence, including a WestJet flight to Puerto Vallarta set to depart from Richardson Airport on Sunday afternoon.

Two flights that were to arrive Sunday evening and early Monday morning currently show as cancelled.