Hundreds of people in Santiago Atlatongo, a town located north of Mexico's capital in neighboring Mexico state and near a national park housing the pyramids of Teotihuacan, mutinied Wednesday after four state police officers investigating illegal dumping tried to take a group of people into custody, one of them a justice of the peace.

Claiming authorities did not have arrest warrants, locals hurled stones and trash at the officers, fueling worries the situation could escalate into a mob killing.

Responding to an emergency call from their colleagues, more than 150 Mexico state police officers flooded the area and rescued the four officers, some of whom sustained minor injuries.

The situation again turned tense, however, after residents set roadblocks of tires on fire to keep authorities from regaining control of the town.

As hundreds more police in riot gear arrived, members of the mob abducted three other state police officers and locked them in a school to demand the release of several suspects arrested during earlier clashes with police.

After hours of negotiation, authorities freed all of the suspects from Santiago Atlatongo taken into custody during battles with police, clearing the way for the release of the three officers. They emerged unharmed from the school long after midnight Thursday, according to a spokeswoman for the local government.

Some of those arrested then freed still face charges. The spokeswoman said several of those accused of organizing the uprising were taken to the Mexico state capital of Toluca later Thursday for questioning.