Twenty-one bodies, some burned, have been found in the northern Mexico near the Texas border in what appears to have been a clash between drug gangs.

The horrifying scene was discovered near the border town of Miguel Aleman in Tamaulipas on Wednesday. Graphic photographs show the bodies scattered in and around several charred vehicles.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the killings appear to have been part of a dispute between gangs. He said details would be released once all the information was gathered.

A Tamaulipas state official who was not authorized to be quoted by name told the Associated Press that investigators had counted 21 bodies at the scene.

One of the dead men, identified as Dulce Garcia, had been reported missing to local police by her husband, according to local media.

Authorities are still working to identify the remaining 20 victims. Some of them appeared to be wearing bulletproof vests and military clothing.

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

Twenty-one bodies, some burned, were found scattered among charred vehicles in the northern Mexico border state of Tamaulipas on Wednesday in what is believed to have been a clash between drug gangs. Horrifying photographs captured the gruesome scene

The area around Miguel Aleman had long been dominated by the Zetas drug cartel, which was locked in a battle for control of crime in the Rio Grande Valley with the rival Gulf cartel.

Miguel Aleman is about 50 miles west of McAllen, Texas, which was to be visited Thursday by President Donald Trump as part of his campaign for a wall or barrier along the border with Mexico.

The Zetas cartel has since splintered, and the deaths in Miguel Aleman appear to have resulted from a dispute between the Gulf cartel and one of the Zetas factions, the Northeast cartel.

Local media has reported that the Cartel del Noreste in the city of Nuevo Laredo and the Los Metros gang, a suspected arm of the Gulf Cartel in the border city of Reynosa, have been engaged in a drug war since May of last year.

Tamaulipas has been a major conduit for drug shipments and has also been the scene of some of the worst massacres and fiercest fighting in Mexico's drug war.

Authorities are still working to identify the remaining 20 victims. Some of them, like the man above, appeared to be wearing bulletproof vests and military clothing