Forty-five bags containing human remains have been found in central Mexico, authorities have said.

The bags were found in a gorge on the outskirts of Guadalajara, according to the state prosecutor’s office in Jalisco, which added the remains were from both men and women.

They were found while authorities were searching for seven young call centre workers who disappeared last week from the district of Zapopan.

It is not clear whether the seven are among the remains found, and a search is continuing for any more body parts.

Such discoveries are not uncommon in Mexico, where more than 110,000 people are listed as missing, many of them likely to have been victims of the country’s drug cartels.

Jalisco has the highest number of missing people – 15,000, according to government figures – and there are also thousands of bodies in morgues and cemeteries that have not been identified.

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Among similar discoveries in recent years was the finding of 18 plastic bags containing hacked-up body parts near a motorway overpass in Guadalajara in February 2021.

In November 2020, 113 bodies and additional human remains were found in a mass grave in the town of El Salto, just outside Guadalajara.