The charred bodies of three police officers were found in their burnt-out car Saturday on a road in southern Mexico, in an area rife with violence between rival gangs, investigators said.

The prosecutor's office said the victims were the director of the San Pablo Coatlan municipal police and two subordinates, attacked in their patrol car on a rural road in southern Oaxaca state.

The area is plagued by violence between rival gangs involved in marijuana cultivation, and disputes over farmland.

More than 300,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the government deployed the military to fight drug trafficking in 2006, according to authorities, who say most of the killings are linked to gang violence.

On Thursday, police discovered the decapitated bodies of eight men on a rural road in the state of Michoacan.

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