Three Mexican police officers were killed in an ambush-style attack

In what authorities described as an ambush-style attack by armed gunmen, three police officers were killed in downtown Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, while patrolling outside an elementary school, a municipal police spokesman said. "Unfortunately, there was an attack and three of our colleagues were killed," Municipal Police spokesman Adrian Sanchez Contreras said. "There were two men and two women. One of the women lured the police vehicle onto the school grounds and that's when the attack occurred," Sanchez added. The suspects were in at least two vehicles when the attack occurred, according to Sanchez. The victims were a 24-year-old female officer and two male officers, one 26 and the other 33 years old. Since October 14, 2010 when Juarez Mayor Hector "Teto" Murguia began his term as the city's new mayor, 25 police officers have been assassinated, Sanchez said - an average of almost an officer killed every other day since Murguia has been in office. Recently, a group of armed men ambushed a police car and killed four municipal officers inside. Also, two armed attackers burst into a kindergarten and set fire to the school building in the violence-plagued border city of Juarez, state media reported.Police say the suspects left a message saying the school had not paid a protection fee, which they had demanded from teachers to prevent attacks against the children, the state-run Notimex news agency said.