By IANS/EFE,
Mexico City : Five Mexican police officers were killed and seven wounded in an ambush by an armed group in the southwestern state of Michoacan, officials said.
The attack took place around 3.30 p.m. Friday on the Mexico City-Morelia-Guadalajara highway near the town of Maravatio, when gunmen opened fire on a federal police patrol, the Public Safety Secretariat in Michoacan told EFE Saturday.
Four federal police officers died at the scene and another succumbed to his injuries in a nearby hospital where the wounded were treated.
The powerful La Familia Michoacana drug cartel operates in the state known for past attacks on the federal police.
Mexico has been plagued by drug-related violence in recent years.
President Felipe Calderon has deployed 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police officials nationwide to combat drug cartels and other criminal organisations.