Mexican police have found five severed heads stuffed in a sack outside a primary school in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.
The gruesome discovery comes after drugs gangs threatened to attack elementary school teachers if they did not pay half their wages to the drugs cartels.
The extortion demands forced around 130 schools in the city to close earlier this month, after administrators and parents decided it was not safe enough to start classes.
Gruesome discovery: A police officer in Acapulco
stands next to the sack containing five severed heads which has been
placed in a small wooden crate
The message, in an apparently sarcastic tone, told people to thank the governor for continuing 'this war'.
The heads all appear to be of men. But some of the five headless bodies found elsewhere in the city the previous day were too badly burned to immediately determine their gender.
The horrific discovery comes just days after police found a woman's decapitated body in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, alongside a handwritten sign saying she was killed in retaliation for her postings on a social networking site.
Late last month, as the new school year began, dozens of teachers in Acapulco said drugs gangs had threatened them with violence if they did not hand over half their salaries from October 1.
Linked? Mexican officials found charred bodies
of men in a burnt-out vehicle in Acapulco a day before the heads were
discovered
Protest: Teachers marched along the streets of
Acapulco on September 14 to demand the government intervention after
extortion threats. The sign reads: 'Acapulco demands Peace and Security'
They and colleagues have since been on strike, leading to the closure of more than 100 schools. Earlier this month, they took to the streets to protest at the situation.
Guerrero State Governor Aguirre has promised a series of measures, including increased police patrols and the installation of security cameras and panic buttons in schools.
But teachers say they still fear for their own and pupils' safety.
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