Fourteen police and two government officials taken prisoner by a group of Indians in the western Mexican state of Michoacan were released on Friday as talks resumed between authorities and indigenous leaders.

The cops and state officials were seized early Thursday while investigating the deaths of eight people in armed clashes in Cheran, a rebel municipality in Michoacan.

The freed captives are in good health and have already been reunited with their families, a state government source told Efe.