Gunmen have kidnapped at least 12 people, including two children, in a southern Mexican region where gangs have perpetrated a series of mass abductions, authorities said Friday. The van that was used to transport the group was found burnt on a road between the hamlets of San Jeronimo and San Cristobal, Guerrero state security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said, citing witnesses.
He spoke of around 30 armed people who abducted "a group of between 12 and 14 people." Some of the relatives of the missing have received phone calls from kidnappers demanding ransom money. The abduction may have been perpetrated by a criminal group known as Los Tequileros, Alvarez said. The mass kidnapping took place in a region known as Tierra Caliente, or Hot Land, where 21 men were kidnapped in January and found alive days later.