Mexican authorities have said they have found a mass grave east of Mexico City and are testing to determine if it holds some of the 12 people who vanished from a bar in an upscale area of the capital nearly three months ago, Belfast Telegraph said. At least seven corpses had been recovered from the grave in Tlalmanalco, Mexico City prosecutor Rodolfo Rios said. He added the victims could not be identified from clothing, and the cause of death had not been determined.

"We will look at DNA tests that have been taken ... to confirm or discard scientifically if the bodies found are the people who disappeared from the bar," Rios said.

The federal Attorney General's Office said agents had received information about possible illegal weapons on the property known locally as Rancho La Negra, and obtained a search warrant. When they started looking around, they discovered the grave, Renato Sales Heredia, an assistant attorney general, said.

The young bar-goers vanished from the after-hours Heaven club at midday May 26, just a block from Mexico City's leafy Paseo de Reforma, the capital's equivalent of the Champs-Elysees. Some of their relatives showed up on the property being excavated, crying and covering their faces from the media.

One federal investigator at the scene said searchers were "90% sure" that the bodies belonged to the victims in the Heaven case because of the designer clothes found. None had identification, and excavators could not see tattoos or other distinguishing marks because the bodies were so decomposed, said the agent.