In Mexico, 16 police employees have been freed after three days of captivity. Police said that more than 1,000 members of state and federal security forces were involved in search operations. Those kidnapped were administrative employees of the police force in the southern state of Chiapas.

According to media reports, the police employees were kidnapped on Tuesday while traveling by bus on a highway between the town of Ocozocoautla and Chiapas state capital Tuxtla Gutierrez. It said, with the drug cartels gaining power in various parts of the country, Mexico has registered some 1,10,000 disappearances since 2006.