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Mexico detains suspects over grenade attack
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-19 13:41

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican police have detained three men suspected of links to grenade attacks that killed seven people at an independence day celebration this week, the government and media said on Thursday.

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Two suspects were transferred to a military facility and were due to be questioned by organized crime investigators, Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino told reporters.

The two men, who were being treated in a hospital in the western state of Zacatecas for injuries suffered in an auto accident, were arrested after police received an anonymous tip, the local government in Zacatecas said.

A third suspect was also caught in Zacatecas, El Universal newspaper reported on its Web site.

Monday's attack in the colonial city of Morelia, capital of the drug gang-infested state of Michoacan, appeared to be the first major strike by cartels on ordinary citizens. More than 100 people, including women and children, were wounded.

Mexican authorities have pointed the finger at drug gangs but no group has come forward to claim responsibility.

Police in Morelia were examining eyewitness reports of a man seen apologizing before lobbing a grenade.

More than 2,700 people have been killed so far this year in Mexico in a wave of drug-related violence as rival cartels battle each other and security forces.

President Felipe Calderon, a native of Michoacan state, has vowed to crush cartel violence and on Thursday announced that the government would start paying rewards to people who turn in organized crime suspects.

Two of the detained men, aged 19 and 26, are from Michoacan state.