ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - Sixty-one bodies were discovered in an abandoned crematorium near the decaying seaside resort of Acapulco in Western Mexico, local authorities said on Friday, adding they believed it was a case of negligence rather than linked to drug violence.
The bodies, clothed, wrapped in sheets and sprinkled with lime, were mostly in a state of decomposition. They were found 130 miles (211 km) from the town of Iguala, where 43 student teachers were abducted by corrupt police and apparently massacred by drug gang members.
"Sixty-one bodies have been confirmed found," Miguel Angel Godinez, attorney general for the state of Guerrero, told Reuters. "We are talking about a clear violation of state sanitation laws."
He said the crematorium had been abandoned for months, and that local residents had called police because of the smell. The dead included one child, his office said.
President Enrique Pena Nieto is facing his deepest crisis over his government's handling of the students' disappearance. The case laid bare Mexico's deep problem of impunity and corruption and it has overshadowed his efforts to focus attention on economic reforms.