The tragic kidnapping and murder of two Americans who crossed the Texas border into Mexico in search of cheap tummy tucks is highlighting the risks of the burgeoning medical tourism industry there, which has seen fatalities both on and off the operating table.

Four Americans — Latavia McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams, all from North and South Carolina — were traveling to Mexico last Friday because Ms. McGee was scheduled for cosmetic surgery that day, relatives of the victims told American media outlets.

After the group crossed the border near Brownsville, Texas, the van they were traveling in was shot at by men who forced them into another vehicle and abducted them about a mile from the border, according to American and Mexican officials.

The attack at Matamoros in northeastern Mexico left two of the Americans dead, one injured, and one unharmed.

“We send our condolences to the relatives of the victims, their friends, to the people of the U.S., to the government of the U.S.,” President López Obrador said at a press conference. “Of course we lament what happens in our country, and especially this.”

During the same news conference, Mr. López complained about the U.S. media’s coverage of the case, accusing it of sensationalism. “It’s not like that when they kill Mexicans in the United States, they go quiet like mummies,” he said.

In a video circulated on social media Friday, men with assault rifles and body armor were recorded loading four people into a white pickup truck with one apparently alive, sitting up, and the others appearing either dead or wounded.

“All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI said in a statement, offering a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the arrest of the kidnappers.

A woman who witnessed the episode told the Associated Press that she suspected that two of the victims may have been dead on Friday, after seeing the attackers drag them across the pavement.

“All of a sudden they [the gunmen] were in front of us,” she told the Associated Press. “I entered a state of shock, nobody honked their horn, nobody moved. Everybody must have been thinking the same thing, ‘If we move they will see us, or they might shoot us.’”

The incident highlights the dangers of traveling to some parts of Mexico, as more Americans are crossing the border seeking affordable healthcare and elective procedures.

After the incident, the Department of State reminded Americans that it maintains its highest-level warning against traveling to certain parts of Mexico, including the border state of Tamaulipas, where the crime occurred, because of persistent violence.

The average cost of an abdominoplasty, or “tummy tuck,” the surgery at least one member of the group was reportedly seeking, is more than $6,000 in America, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The Medical Tourism Corporation said patients will pay about $4,400 for the procedure in Mexico, though prices vary. Before the pandemic, HealthCareInsider reported that about 780,000 Americans traveled abroad for dental and medical procedures.

Aside from travel risks, illegal clinics that cater to medical tourists pose dangers of their own. Three patients died last August in Tijuana during cosmetic surgery at illegal clinics that cater to tourists.

According to a survey conducted by the College of Plastic, Cosmetic, and Reconstructive Surgeons at Baja California, there are more than 300 people operating as surgeons illegally in Tijuana alone.