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Gunmen kill 13 police in ambush in central Mexico

WION Web Team
Mexico City, MexicoUpdated: Mar 19, 2021, 08:22 AM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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The convoy of security personnel was attacked by suspected gang members in the Llano Grande area in the municipality of Coatepec Harinas as it patrolled the area, said Rodrigo Martinez-Celis, security minister for the State of Mexico.

Armed gunmen killed at least eight Mexican police officials and five prosecution investigators in an ambush in the central State of Mexico on Thursday.

The convoy of security personnel was attacked by suspected gang members in the Llano Grande area in the municipality of Coatepec Harinas as it patrolled the area, said Rodrigo Martinez-Celis, security minister for the State of Mexico.

The ambush sparked a huge search for the killers in a rural, gang-plagued area southwest of Mexico City, which is surrounded on three sides by Mexico State. The dead law enforcement officers worked for the state.

Mexico's National Guard militarised police and the armed forces are searching by land and air for the perpetrators.

The massacre of the 13 law enforcement officers in the State of Mexico on Thursday was the country's single biggest slaying of law enforcement since October 2019, when cartel gunmen ambushed and killed 14 state police officers in the neighbouring state of Michoacan.

There was no immediate indication as to what gang or cartel the gunmen might have belonged to. Several operate in the area around Coatepec Harinas, where the attack occurred.