A 13-year-old boy has died after armed gunmen possibly affiliated with a drug cartel shot him and his family over the weekend as they traveled home to the US from a vacation in Mexico.

The boy, his mother, 42, father, 48, and another boy, ten, were shot as they drove in a minivan from Mexico to the U.S. border on Reynosa-Nuevo Laredo Highway, Los Arcos, on Saturday night.

It is believed they had been visiting relatives in the state of San Luis Potosi from their home in Oklahoma, reports The New York Post.

The attorney general's office in the state of Tamaulipas said the boy was a US citizen and that the parents were permanent residents of the US. They did not release the victims' names.

The 13-year-old boy and his parents, mother, 42, father, 48, and another boy, ten, were shot as they drove in a minivan from Mexico to the U.S. border on Reynosa-Nuevo Laredo Highway, Los Arcos, on Saturday night

Investigating officers and military personnel who attended the scene found three cars with 'crash impacts'

One car was abandoned with Tamaulipas plates, and two belonged to the family with Oklahoma plates - bullet holes can be seen in the windshield

Multiple local news reports have identified the deceased 13-year-old as Oscar Castillo López and his injured parents as Juanita Castillo López and José Silva Mendoza.

Reports from El Diario have described the attackers as drug traffickers with the Cártel del Noreste.

It is unclear at this time why the family from Oklahoma was targeted by the assailants.

Reynosa-Nuevo Laredo Highway, Los Arcos, connects the city of Mier with Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, on the banks of the Rio Grande across the US-Mexico border from Falcon Heights, Texas

Gunmen are said to have collided with the family's Chevrolet Traverse SUV with Oklahoma license plates after they refused to stop. The victims were accompanied by another relative in a car behind who was not injured.

After being forced to pull over, the mother, father and two young boys were shot - fatally injuring the 13-year-old.

Investigating officers and military personnel who responded to the scene found three cars with 'crash impacts,' one abandoned with Tamaulipas plates, and two belonging to the family with Oklahoma plates.

Attackers are said to have collided with the family's Chevrolet SUV

Attackers are believed to have fled in another van.

The family was taken to a hospital in Cerralvo, Nuevo Leon, where the mother, father and ten-year-old are said to be in a stable condition, reports El Universal.

The highway on which the American family were ambushed is considered high risk. It runs through an area that's disputed by criminal groups, including the Gulf Cartel and Zetas.

The road connects the city of Mier with Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, on the banks of the Rio Grande across the US-Mexico border from Falcon Heights, Texas.

The fatal attack on the family comes two months after nine women and children belonging to an American Mormon family were ambushed and killed in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.