Mexicans shocked by truck pillage, cows taken, slaughtered

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexicans are expressing concern over video showing hundreds of people looting cattle from a stalled truck and slaughtering some of the cows on the side of a highway with machetes.

The truck stopped over the weekend when it got into an accident in the Gulf state of Veracruz.

State prosecutor Jorge Winckler said Monday that throngs of local residents started releasing the cattle, lassoing them and leading some away. He said that "some people took the cattle, and some cut them up."

Winckler says nobody has been arrested and adds that "cattle industry associations are worried" such incidents could be repeated.

Animal rights activists were horrified by the scenes of primitive slaughter and terrified cattle.

Mexico has increasingly been hit by such mass crimes, with whole neighborhoods looting stalled trains.