Mass grave found in Mexico

At least nine bodies have been recovered from a mass grave in Tumbiscatio, a municipality in Mexico's troubled state of Michoacan, media reports said Friday.

The bodies have yet to be identified, but include seven men and two women, Xinhua quoted the state attorney general's office as saying.

News of the mass grave came on the same day newspapers published a report by the national attorney general's office announcing that 22,322 people in Mexico are declared as missing.

The grave site is located in the community of Las Playitas, where the head of Mexico's Caballeros Templarios, or Knights Templar, drug cartel, Servando "La Tuta" Gomez, is currently believed to be living, the prestigious news magazine Proceso said on its website.

Michoacan has been rocked by drug-related violence since the early 2000's, leading many local communities to form self-defence groups.