Police in Mexico say eight officers who were abducted by gunmen in the southern state of Guerrero on Friday have been found shot dead.
A ninth member of the unit has been found alive with wounds to his head. The bodies of some of the dead officers are reported to have been mutilated.
The police patrol was investigating a murder when it was ambushed.
The BBC reports Guerrero state has been a focus of the drugs-related violence that has killed more than 28,000 Mexicans since 2006.
Guerrero state is the Mexico's main opium producing region.
It has also been the scene of a violent struggle between rival drugs gangs for control of smuggling routes to the US along the Pacific coast.
