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MEXICO CITY, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of an attack on a police helicopter in the Mexican state of Michoacan on Tuesday has risen to five, after a police officer died in hospital Wednesday, the state government announced on Wednesday.
The attorney-general's office of Michoacan (PGJE) wrote on Twitter that the only surviving police officer after the crash had been receiving treatment for severe burns at a hospital in the state capital, Morelia, but unfortunately passed away.
"The PGJE honors the memory of the four public agents and the pilot who gave their lives in the line of duty," it wrote on its official Twitter account.
Suspected criminal elements shot at the helicopter with a .50 caliber rifle on Tuesday, causing it to crash in fields belonging to the municipality of La Huacana.
According to the state government, an operation had been underway to seize the leaders of a gang accused of kidnapping a local farmer.
On Wednesday, Silvano Aureoles, the governor of Michoacan, visited the scene of the attack, accompanied by army and police units.
He later wrote on Twitter that the attack would not go unpunished and that actions had been taken to limit the operations of organized crime.
