350 migrants 'break violently' into Mexico as new caravan arrives

A group of around 350 Central American migrants "broke violently" into Mexico Friday, the country's immigration authorities said, as a new caravan of around 2,500 people arrived from Guatemala.

Mexico's National Migration Institute said some members of the caravan had attacked local police in the southern town of Metapa de Dominguez -- news sure to draw the attention of President Donald Trump as he continues his crackdown on undocumented migrants heading toward the US.

"Today at 3:30 am (0830 GMT) a group of approximately 350 people broke violently across the Mexican border from Guatemala," the National Migration Institute said in a statement.

"With an aggressive attitude, (the migrants) broke the padlock on the border gate and entered the country." The caravan set out Wednesday from the city of San Pedro Sula in Honduras and has picked up Guatemalans and some Nicaraguans along the way.

The migrants are mostly fleeing poverty and brutal violence in their home countries.

"We can't live (in Honduras) anymore. We're heading for the border, for the United States," said Jorge, a young Honduran migrant who declined to give his last name.

It is the latest in a series of caravans to try to reach the US-Mexican border, seeking safety in numbers against the criminal gangs that extort, kidnap and even murder migrants crossing Mexico.

Trump, who says there is a crisis on the US-Mexican border, has declared a national emergency over the flow of undocumented migrants and illegal drugs into the United States, deployed troops to the border and repeatedly threatened to close it.