GUATEMALA CITY – Two agents of Guatemala’s National Civil Police, or PNC, were seriously wounded in three armed attacks on the force’s facilities and vehicles, an official said.

PNC spokesman Donald Gonzalez told Efe that the first two attacks were perpetrated by armed men who opened fire on two patrol cars at different points in the capital.

“Unfortunately two of our agents have been seriously wounded, but their medical condition is stable,” Gonzalez said.

The third attack took place in a downtown residential neighborhood of the capital, in which unknown persons threw a grenade at PNC headquarters, though the device failed to explode.

According to Gonzalez, the attacks could be “reprisals by groups of organized crime” for the moving of close to 15 convicts considered dangerous to a maximum security prison.

The spokesman said that security measures have been heightened to avoid further attacks, adding that “the investigation of these incidents is well underway.” EFE