Mexican police kidnapped and butchered by drug gang

Seven police officers have been dragged from their homes, tortured and murdered by a drugs gang in northern Mexico. The officers, aged between 30 and 48, were grabbed at dawn from their homes by armed men in the northern city of Monterrey.

Their tortured bodies were found hours later in an abandoned plot of land with a message from a criminal group. All the victims were handcuffed and one had been decapitated.

The killings came after more than 50 people were killed in an ambush on a Mexican federal police convoy and in a prison uprising.

In another incident, marines were caught up in a gunfight in Acapulco while on their way to search a property where suspicious activity had been reported. Two people were detained. The ambush on the police convoy in the central coastal city of Zitacuaro left 12 police officers and at least 13 attackers dead.

Violence in Mexico has rocketed since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country's drugs cartels after taking office in December 2006.

More than 23,000 people have died in the drug violence, as thousands of troops and police have taken on the heavily armed cartels which control the mutli-billion dollar business.

The recent surge in violence prompted President Calderon to give a television address to the nation, calling the battle against the gangs a fight for the nation's future.