10 burned bodies found in Mexican vehicle

At least 10 charred corpses have been found in a southern Mexican state among the hardest hit by violence linked to organized crime, a state prosecutor said on Saturday.

The Guerrero prosecutor said the bodies were found on Friday in a vehicle in Chilapa municipality after someone called an emergency line.

Forensic and other investigators were at the scene, the prosecutor said.

Drug gangs violently defend trafficking routes in the state along the Pacific coast.

In October, 14 suspected criminals and a soldier were killed in Guerrero after a group of armed civilians attacked security forces.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office more than a year ago promising to attack violent crime at its roots by fighting poverty and inequality with social programs, rather than with the army.

But the country still saw nearly 29,000 murders last year and has registered around 275,000 killings since the government launched a military offensive against drug cartels in 2006.