UPDATE 2-Mexico police take rebel town, seek hostages

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By Noel Randewich

SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico, May 4 (Reuters) - Thousands of riot police firing tear gas forced their way into a rebellious town near Mexico City on Thursday to hunt for fellow officers taken hostage in a riot that left at least one person dead.

Scores of police clad in body armor sweeping into the fractious farming town of San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles (24 km) north of Mexico City, and hauling off bleeding protesters amid peasants armed with sticks, machetes and Molotov cocktails.

Violence exploded in the area on Wednesday when police tried to evict unlicensed flower traders from a market. A 14-year-old boy was killed in the riots, whose televised images raised concerns of stability in a presidential year.

Squads of police went house to house on Thursday, scaling concrete walls in search of missing officers and militant leaders, and hustling out bloodied prisoners to waiting pickup trucks. The acrid smell of tear gas hung in the air ...

http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nN04297319