Spanish authorities say they have arrested five young computer hackers accused of disabling Internet pages run by government agencies in the U.S., Latin America and Asia.

The National Police on Saturday described the suspects as being among the most active hackers on the Internet and said two of them are only 16 years old. The others are 19 or 20.

The group attacked some 21,000 Web pages over the last two years, police said in a statement. The five were arrested this week in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia.

The statement did not identify which government Web sites the suspects are accused of tampering with.

The investigation began in March after the Web page of a Spanish political party, Izquierda Unida, was disabled shortly after Spain’s general election on March 9.