At least 14 police officers killed in an ambush in Mexico

Enrique CASTRO / AFP

Fourteen police officers have been killed and three more wounded in an ambush in the western Mexican state of Michoacan.

Michoacan's state security department said officers had gone to a home in the town of El Aguaje to carry out a judicial order when "several armed civilians fired on them".

In a matter of minutes, heavily armed men in a number of pick-up trucks began shooting and setting the police vans on fire.

The Jalisco New Generation drug cartel is suspected of being behind the attack. 

Large placards reading "CJNG" - the acronym belonging to the Jalisco New Generation cartel - were left on police vehicles. 

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