MEXICO CITY — A mass grave has been found near here, the authorities said Thursday, and they are investigating whether the victims are a group of young people kidnapped en masse from a bar in May, a crime that shocked and perplexed a capital city not accustomed to such brazen violence.

Image Credit... The New York Times

The city’s chief prosecutor, Rodolfo Ríos Garza, said it would take at least two days to analyze evidence and identify the bodies, found Wednesday east of downtown, in the town of Tlalmanalco; at least seven have been excavated but officials said there could be more. The 12 young people were abducted from the Heaven bar in a popular nightclub district steps away from Paseo de la Reforma, a major thoroughfare. It was the kind of kidnapping that occurs more often in areas of the country in the throes of the drug war but less so in the capital.

Mexican news media have focused on the group’s connection to the city’s Tepito neighborhood, a rough slum synonymous with crime and contraband. News reports said some of the abducted had connections to drug dealers, though their families have said they were not criminals. Relatives have staged protests to complain about the investigation’s slow progress.