Updated

Three men working for a polling firm have been rescued from a mob in southern Mexico that beat them bloody.

The SIMO Consulting firm says in a statement issued Tuesday that the three employees were conducting a poll in the town of Centla in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco on Monday night.

They were attacked by a mob that apparently mistook them for thieves. One was seriously injured before state authorities rescued them.

State Interior Secretary Gustavo Rosario says, "People cannot take the law into their own hands. The state government condemns these acts."

In October last year, a mob killed and burned two pollsters conducting a survey about tortilla consumption in a small town southeast of Mexico City.