Over 1,000 People Engaged in Search for 16 Kidnapped Police Officers in Mexico

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - More than 1,000 security officers are involved in the search operation for 16 police officers, who have been kidnapped in the Mexican state of Chiapas by an armed group of people, Gabriela Cepeda Soto, the Commissioner of the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection of Chiapas, said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Security and Civil Protection of Chiapas said Tuesday that an armed group of people had blocked its bus and kidnapped the department's 14 police officers.

"When we arrived on the scene, we found the bus of the Ministry of Security and Civil Protection of the state of Chiapas, with 17 women, administrative employees of the ministry, who told us that minutes before they had been intercepted by a group of vehicles with armed men, who forced the men to step out the bus in order to later deprive them of their liberty," Cepeda said in a video address posted on the secretariat's social media.

"It is important to note that there were 16 men."

Two men allegedly involved in the kidnapping have been detained during the search operation in the vicinity of the scene of the incident, she added.

The Mexican Defense Ministry, the Navy, the national guard, the state and national prosecutor's offices - a total of more than 1,00 security officers, supported by specialists from the capital - joined the search for the kidnapped police officers, she said.

Cepeda said the ministry was in constant communication with the families of the kidnapped, with a special team providing them with "emotional support."