Seven police officers were killed and 33 others were kidnapped on Saturday when rebels attacked a village in western Colombia, government officials said.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) launched the attack just before dawn, when dozens of FARC militants encircled the village of San Marino, 275 km west of Bogota, and began shooting at police officers, said National Police chief Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro.

Army troops were headed to the area to track down the guerrillas, added Castro, who warned in October that the rebels have a "macabre plan" to kill small-town police officers as they are easy targets.

In the past three months, the FARC, the largest armed rebel group in Colombia, has killed more than 30 police officers in remote towns such as San Marino.

The group, with about 17,000 fighters, controls nearly 40 percent of Colombia's territory and has been fighting government troops for more than 40 years.

Source: Xinhua