Three federal police officials killed in Mexico

Acapulco: Three federal police were shot dead as they ate in a market in a southern Mexican town beset by disappearances and recent discoveries of bodies in clandestine graves.

A woman and a man were wounded in the attack yesterday, which was perpetrated by unknown gunmen with "large-caliber" weapons at the municipal market of Chilapa, the Guerrero state prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The wounded were urgently hospitalised while an operation was launched to find the killers, the statement said.

Chilapa lies in a region of Guerrero state where opium poppies are grown and drug cartels fight for control of heroin trafficking.

At least 16 people were reported missing in May of last year after an armed group of 300 people occupied the town for several days.

Earlier this month, seven bodies were found in five clandestine graves in the municipality and a woman's corpse was discovered in a well.