More than a dozen police officers have been killed in two ambushes in Mexico in one of the worst massacres to rock the country in recent years.
At least 13 police officers have been killed in the two attacks, with some reports initially claiming up to 17 deaths.
Images of the gruesome scene circulated on social media showing a bullet-riddled police car and an unmarked truck, along with officers' bodies scattered out along the street or still inside the car.
The two locations of the attacks were at Zacualpan and Coatepec Harinas and they were carried out by gang members from organised crime groups.
A convoy of security personnel was attacked in broad daylight by suspected gang members in the Llano Grande area in the municipality of Coatepec Harinas as it patrolled the area, said Rodrigo Martinez-Celis, security minister for the State of Mexico.
Mexican news publication La Silla Rota said that one attack happened on the road to Zacualpan where there was a confrontation between security personnel and members of organised crime.
In the second massacre at Coatepec the violence is believed to have broken out on Thursday afternoon but it has not been confirmed how many police died at each attack.
Some reports said there were 17 officers killed while a reporter in Mexico has claimed that the number of dead is 13.
Eight of the confirmed slain officers were state police, while five others were police assigned to the state prosecutor's office.
Local reports, citing an 'Army source', said the first attack happened when security personnel 'intercepted suspected criminals and shooting broke out.'
The second was reportedly an 'ambush' that claimed more than a dozen lives.
Rodrigo Martinez-Celis, security minister for the State of Mexico, said: “This attack is an affront to the Mexican state.
"We will respond with all force and support of the law."
Mexico's National Guard militarized police and the armed forces are searching by land and air for the gunmen.
It was unclear how many suspected criminals were killed or wounded in the incident, or if it involved any of the country's main drug cartels.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment Mexican drug trafficking organisations pose 'the greatest crime threat to the United States.'
The agency also said they have 'the greatest drug trafficking influence,' and are often referred to as transnational criminal organisations.
They are involved in crimes of extortion, human smuggling, and oil theft, among others and their supply chains move all across the globe.
Their extensive violence since 2006 has caused Mexico’s murder rate to surge.
