Mexican town police force quits en masse after attack

Monterrey (Mexico), Oct 27 (IANS/EFE) The entire police force of a rural community in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon resigned after a grenade attack on their headquarters, the town’s mayor said.

Santos Salinas Garza made the announcement after a meeting with the 14 officers working in Los Ramones, a municipality of some 6,000 people, located 60 km east of Monterrey, the state capital.

Members of the Nuevo Leon highway patrol will take over the responsibilities of the local police starting Wednesday, the mayor said.

Neither he nor any of the officers received any threats prior to Monday night’s assault on the police station, Salinas said.

Assailants traveling in several SUVs pelted the station - inaugurated just three days before - and patrol cars parked outside with grenades and fired from assault rifles.

No one was injured in the attack, as the five officers on duty sheltered inside a room at the station during the roughly 15-minute bombardment, authorities said.

Federal police and army troops immediately launched a search for the perpetrators of the attack, which bore the hallmarks of organized crime.

–IANS/EFE