A crowd has attacked police officers, triggering clashes with security forces just north of the Mexican capital.

The incident began when police trying to make arrests in the town of Santiago Atlatongo were stoned by local people.

Riot police were sent, and in the ensuing disturbances residents took three other officers hostage. It is unclear whether they have been freed.

Mexican officials have been on alert for attacks on police since officers were killed in a lynching in November.

The latest incident was sparked by an attempt to arrest four people in Santiago Atlatongo on Wednesday, as part of an apparent operation against illegal dumping.

A group of residents claiming the police had no arrest warrants began to hurl stones at the officers, who called for help.

The authorities responded by sending helicopters and hundreds of additional police.

They fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. But the residents set up barricades, blocked roads and took the three officers hostage.

In the November incident, two plain-clothes officers were burned alive by a crowd in a suburb of Mexico City, after locals apparently mistook them for child kidnappers.

The Mexican authorities were criticised at the time for their slow reaction to the disturbance.