An armed group forcibly evacuated and torched an indigenous village in Guatemala that is home to 40 families, authorities and rights organizations said. Several heavily armed people attacked the village of Balbatzul inhabited by the ethnically Mayan Q'echi's tribe early on Sunday, the police and public prosecutor said. After several telephone appeals for help, police rushed to the village some 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital Guatemala City, and found that 40 families had been subjected to the attack, police spokesman Jorge Aguilar said. The attackers evicted the families and then set fire to their homes, said Daniel Pascual, a leader from the Peasant Union Committee. The district public prosecutor has launched an investigation, Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei said. "Violence between (Guatemalan) brothers is not acceptable," said Giammattei on Twitter, vowing to step up security for villagers. ec/dro/jb/rle/bc/bgs