A VEHICLE FULL of dead bodies was found today outside a town hall in a northern Mexican state gripped by a turf war between rival drug cartels.

The grisly discovery was made in a sports utility vehicle in the main square in the city of Zacatecas, state governor David Monreal said in a message via social media.

The bodies showed signs of having been beaten and injured, he said.

Monreal did not say how many corpses were inside the SUV, but Mexican media reported that there were 10.

Authorities were investigating how the vehicle came to be parked in the heart of the city, the capital of Zacatecas state, Monreal said.

The notorious Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels are fighting in the area for control of drug smuggling routes to the United States, officials and experts say.

Zacatecas state has seen an upsurge in violence in recent years.

In November, the bodies of six people were found hanging from a bridge and a tree in the city of Fresnillo, prompting the Mexican government to send security reinforcements.

Across Mexico, more than 300,000 people have been killed in a wave of bloodshed since the government deployed the army to fight drug cartels in 2006.

© AFP 2022