(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-16 14:04

Mexico City - Guatemalan Police holed up suspected thieves in a slum on the outskirts of Guatemala City on Saturday and exchanged fire with them, killing all the six suspects.

One police officer also died in the gun battle and five others, including a soldier, three police officers and a police spokesman, were wounded.

According to reports reaching here, the suspects looted a jewelry store in a shopping mall in the village of Villa Hermosa, south from Guatemala City, and killed a private security guard before they barricaded themselves inside a private house.

Guatemalan authorities were quoted as saying that 70 soldiers and 300 police officers joined the operation.

"The exchange of gunfire was very intense, but everything is now under control," Interior Minister Adela Camacho said.

The police found the six bodies of suspects, assault rifles and hand grenades at the scene.