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Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 children and adolescents from the fundamentalist Jewish sect Lev Tahor in southeastern Guatemala on Friday following allegations of child abuse, including rape, prosecutors said.

The rescue operation in the agricultural municipality of Oratorio, 78 kilometers (48.47 miles) southeast of Guatemala City, highlights ongoing concerns over the controversial practices of the extremist sect.

"Based on the statements of the complainants, the evidence obtained, and the medical examinations, it was possible to establish that there are forms of human trafficking against these minors,Ìýin the form of "forced pregnancy, mistreatment of minors and rape,"ÌýNancy Paiz, a prosecutor at Guatemala's Prosecutor's Office Against Human Trafficking, said at a press conference.

Authorities said 40 women were also removed from the compound.

About 100 of the children’s relatives who belong to the group gathered on Sunday outside a care center in Guatemala City where the children were being held to demand their return.

Members of the sect then "broke into" the center around 4:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, "forcing open the gate and abducting the children and adolescents sheltered there," a statement from the Attorney General’s Office said.

Those outside the shelter tried to prevent the authorities from bringing back the minors, leading to some scuffles with police, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.

The Lev Tahor community, founded in 1988 in Israel, practice an austere form of Judaism with interpretations of Jewish law that includes long prayer sessions and arranged marriages.

Lev Tahor ("Pure Heart" in Hebrew) has faced multiple allegations of kidnapping, child marriage and physical abuse since it was founded in the 1980s.ÌýThe group is often termed the "Jewish Taliban" due to its extremist religious practices.

Officials estimate that the community is made up of roughly 50 families from Guatemala, the United States, Canada, Israel and other countries. The group has moved repeatedly across international borders due to issues with authorities.

The community settled in Mexico and Guatemala between 2014 and 2017. In 2022, a Mexican police operation in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on the Guatemalan border rescued a group of children and adolescents from a Lev Tahor camp, whose members were arrested on suspicions of participating in abuses against minors.

The Jewish Community of Guatemala in a statement said the sect was foreign to its own organisation and expressed its support for Guatemalan authorities in carrying out necessary investigations "to protect the lives and integrity of minors and other vulnerable groups that may be at risk."

It called on the "government and diplomatic corps of countries from whose nationalities make up members of Lev Tahor, to join forces to protect those whose rights may be violated."

What's next?

The minors are now under the protection of the government and investigations remain underway.Ìý

"We want them to let the children out of here," Uriel Goldman, a representative of the families, told AFP outside the center before the attempted recapture of the minors.