17 bodies found in abandoned house in Mexico

Missing persons investigators found 17 bodies in an abandoned house in a central Mexican region plagued by criminal violence, the state prosecutor's office said.

Ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs were used to locate the bodies last week in Irapuato in Guanajuato state, according to a statement released late Monday.

Five of the victims have been identified as missing persons, it said.

Guanajuato is a thriving industrial hub and home to several popular tourist destinations, but it is also Mexico's deadliest state due to gang turf wars, according to official homicide statistics.

Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed around 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing.

Much of the violence in Guanajuato is linked to conflict between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful in the Latin American nation.

Guanajuato recorded more than 3,000 murders last year, the most of any Mexican state, according to official figures.