Armed civilians attacked a police station in Guanajuato on Friday, killing five prisoners and freeing another.

The commando of at least eight men entered the station in Valle de Santiago around 3:00pm, threatened officers with assault rifles and started shooting at prisoners. They locked up the surviving prisoners, and removed one who had been arrested for a weapons violation on Thursday.

According to police, the prisoner who was rescued is an organized crime leader who goes by the name “El Mano Mocha.” The prisoners who were killed have not been identified.

Witnesses from a nearby hospital saw the aggressors boarding two pickup trucks after the attack, one grey and one black, and driving away towards Yuriria. The hospital was also damaged by gunshots.

State police searched for the attackers on nearby highways for the rest of the evening and night.

The attack came just two days after the deputy police chief of Valle de Santiago was attacked by gunmen while traveling on a highway. Hewas not injured.

A similar attack took place April 18 in the Guanajuato city of Celaya, when armed men broke into a police station, killed a judge and a prisoner and freed another prisoner, who was later killed during a shootout with police.

Source: El Universal (sp)