Seven policemen killed in Chiapas

Gunmen in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas have killed seven policemen and injured two other people in an ambush.

Officials said a large search operation for the attackers had begun in the area where the shooting took place, about a-hundred kilometres north-west of the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez.

They said they could not rule out the involvement of Zapatista rebels, who staged an uprising in 1994 to demand greater rights for indigenous indians.

The authorities recently stepped up security in Chiapas in response to the large number of armed groups accused of carrying out a number of shootings.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service