Police Storm Texas Polygamist Ranch

Police called in ambulances and other emergency vehicles as they prepared to search the polygamist group's temple, officials said.

Authorities wanted medical backup "in case they're involved in sensitive areas that could escalate into a negative reaction," a law enforcement source said. A police helicopter circled the ranch Saturday night.

If no agreement is reached with sect leaders, authorities will forcibly remove the sect's followers "as peaceably as possible," Allison Palmer, a prosecutor in Tom Green County, told the San Angelo Standard-Times.

Medical workers are being sent "in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants," Palmer said. Law enforcers are "preparing for the worst," she said.

The investigation began after a 16-year-old living there complained of physical abuse. A search warrant authorized state troopers to enter the retreat run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and look for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man.

The warrant said the girl had a baby eight months ago, when she was 15.

State Child Protective Services on Friday removed 52 girls from the compound. Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the agency, said that another 131 residents were removed overnight and that by Saturday afternoon 137 children and 46 women were being housed and interviewed.

Child welfare officials following up on an abuse complaint took custody of 18 girls Friday who lived at a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

A total of 52 girls, ages 6 months to 17 years, were bused away on Friday to be interviewed, but only 18 were immediately taken into state custody, said Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. No arrests had been made.

Meisner said welfare officials were looking for foster homes for the girls, most of whom have rarely been outside the insular world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were being housed for now at a civic center, she said.

"We're dealing with children that aren't accustomed to the outside world, so we're trying to be very sensitive to their needs," Meisner said.

Authorities had interviewed about half the girls since arriving Thursday evening at the remote compound with law enforcers, she said. Interviews were expected to continue over the weekend.

The investigation began with a call alleging physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl living there, Meisner said.

On Friday afternoon, the Department of Public Safety officials began executing a search warrant.

Child Protective Services is "investigating whether any children are in danger," spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner told the AP. She said no decisions had been made on whether to remove any children from the south-central Texas ranch, the wire service reported.

Local affiliates reported the officers and state agents entered the ranch Thursday night, and a Schleicher County sheriff's dispatcher said they were still there at sunrise Friday.

Efforts to reach Sheriff David Doran and a spokesman with the Texas Department of Public Safety were unsuccessful.

Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) bought 1,900 acres near Eldorado, Texas, four years ago and built the ranch, which they call the YFZ Ranch. It is now home to as many as 400 members who relocated from their Arizona and Utah compounds.

Jeffs, the 52-year-old leader and "prophet" of the 10,000-member church, was convicted in Utah last year on two counts of being an accomplice to rape, charges related to a marriage he performed in 2001.