By Nick Miles BBC Central America correspondent in Mexico City

Thousands of former militia members who fought in Guatemala's civil war have burned down buildings and taken a provincial governor hostage in the south of the country.

Human rights abuses were widespread during the war

The kidnappers are former members of Guatemala's civil defence patrols who are demanding payment for their services during the war, which ended in 1996.

Hundreds of police have moved into the area to secure the release of the governor and several other hostages.

The violence started when about 1,000 former members of the civil patrols known as PACs converged on the town of San Francisco Zapotitlan.

They demanded to speak to the state governor Fernando Tercero and when he arrived they took him prisoner.

Earlier, several thousand other former PAC members stormed the nearby town of Chicacao.

They burnt down several local government buildings including the mayor's house before police managed to regain control.

Paying the former militia members has been a deeply divisive issue in Guatemala.

Human rights groups say patrol members, many of whom were forced into service by the army, were responsible for hundreds of massacres of suspected left-wing guerrillas and Mayan Indian civilians.

Two hundred thousand people died during the four decade-long civil war.

In recent months the former militia members have put pressure on the government to pay them, blockading roads across the country.

The government agreed to make payments, but only to a fraction of those people demanding money. Now the anger felt by those who say they have been left out has boiled over into widespread unrest.