Mexico ( 10 Kids Kidnapped at Mexican Kindergarten, Found Hours Later )

MEXICO CITY – Ten children were “abducted” from a kindergarten in the central Mexican state of Morelos, but they were freed a few hours later and are “in good health,” Gov. Graco Ramirez said Tuesday.

“The children have been found” and are “in good health,” the governor, who belongs to the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, said in a message on Twitter.

“We already have people arrested,” Ramirez said, adding that the kidnapping of the children was a “criminal provocation” to which the authorities would not submit.

State Government Secretary Jorge Messeguer said on Twitter that the kids were found in the España Hotel in central Cuernavaca just two hours after they were kidnapped in two taxis.

“This was a telephone deception,” the official said, telling Milenio TV that an investigation is under way to determine the facts in the case.

In addition, he said that several people have already given statements about the incident, including the kindergarten officials and a teacher in the town of Chamilpa.

According to the daily Excelsior, the parents of the children said that they had received a telephone call during which the alleged kidnappers demanded 1 million pesos (about $77,000) in exchange for the kids’ safe release. EFE