Explosives attack kills three police officers, wounds 10 in Mexico: governor

GUADALAJARA, Mexico - Three police officers were killed and 10 other people injured Tuesday in an "unprecedented" explosives attack in the Mexican state of Jalisco, the state governor said.

Police officers and staff from the state prosecutors' office "suffered a cowardly attack with explosive devices, which preliminarily caused the death of three colleagues from the municipal police and the Prosecutor's Office, as well as 10 people injured," Governor Enrique Alfaro said on Twitter.

"This is an unprecedented event that shows what these organized crime groups are capable of," the governor added. "This attack also represents a challenge against the Mexican state as a whole."

The western state is the base of operations of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking groups, which has a presence in a large part of the country and is embroiled in disputes with other drug syndicates.

Alfaro said Jalisco's security cabinet was "in permanent session" to investigate the attack, which has not been attributed to a specific criminal organization.

According to reports by local network Televisa, the explosion occurred near a vehicle in which the security officials were travelling.

While car-bomb attacks are rare in Mexico, a car bomb in June killed a National Guard member and wounded others in Guanajuato, another state hit hard by cartel-linked violence.

Also on Tuesday, 13 security personnel who had been taken captive the day before by protesters in the southern state of Guerrero were released after negotiations with authorities.

Officials said the protesters were infiltrated by a criminal group.

Guerrero has endured years of violence linked to turf wars between drug cartels.

Since the launch of a controversial military anti-drug offensive in 2006, Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders and some 100,000 disappearances, mostly attributed to criminal organisations. - AFP