A Spanish newspaper and a US broadcaster published surveillance footage of five men being beaten and shot in the northwestern city of Nuevo Laredo near the US border in a region hard hit by criminal violence.

"There seem to have been executions and this cannot be allowed," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at his daily press briefing.

The suspects are under arrest, he added.

El Pais and Univision published footage of an incident on May 18 in which soldiers apparently beat and shot at a group of men on a roadside.

The footage starts with a pickup truck, apparently involved in a chase, crashing into a perimeter wall at high speed.

An armored car with a roof-mounted machine gun then bashes into the side of the truck.

A dozen soldiers surround the stricken vehicle before pulling out five men. The soldiers then kick and beat the men, who are tied up and pulled along the ground.

The soldiers are seen returning fire after appearing to come under attack from shooters who cannot be seen in the footage.

One soldier is then seen shooting at the five. Four of them died at the scene, according to Univision.

An ambulance arrived an hour later for the fifth man, but he died on his way to the hospital, the broadcaster added.

Mexican prosecutors and the military are investigating.

In February in the same city, soldiers fired on a vehicle carrying seven young people apparently leaving a party, killing five of them.

Four soldiers are on trial in that case.

Lopez Obrador insisted these were isolated cases in a country that does "not tolerate violations of human rights."

Last year, Amnesty International warned that the "militarization of public security" in Mexico would "lead to more human rights violations and perpetuate impunity."