Story highlights Police say they are combing the area to search for suspects 
 
 The bodies were found near a shopping mall in Veracruz state 
 
 The dead included 12 women and 23 men 
 
 The state prosecutor says trucks carrying the bodies were abandoned in rush-hour traffic 
 
 At least 35 human bodies were found in a roadway during rush-hour traffic in the Mexican coastal state of Veracruz Tuesday, the state attorney general said. 
 
 Police in the eastern state found two trucks carrying the bodies near a shopping mall in the municipality of Boca del Rio, Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez said. 
 
 ¨An event like this is unprecedented," he said. ¨It hasn´t happened before in the state of Veracruz.¨ 
 
 Seven of the dead had been identified by Tuesday evening. A government database indicated that they had criminal backgrounds including extortion, homicide and drug trafficking, he said. 
 
 The dead included 12 women and 23 men. Their bodies showed signs of violence, Escobar said, without providing further details. 
 
 After blocking traffic, the two trucks were abandoned in the middle of the road, witnesses said. Their gates were left open, allowing bodies to fall out. 
 
 Hours later, blood stains remained on the road as troops stood guard. 
 
 Boca del Rio is in Veracruz state´s most populated area. It has become a frequent site of clashes between armed groups as drug-related violence grows. 
 
 Authorities were combing the area in search of suspects, police said in a Twitter post. 
 
 They were also beefing up security along the state´s borders, Escobar said. 
 
 Earlier Tuesday, 32 inmates escaped from three prisons in Veracruz, authorities said. At least 14 of them had been apprehended by Tuesday night. 
 
 Escobar said none of the bodies that had been identified by Tuesday night appeared connected with the prison breaks. 
 
 After the bodies were found, Mexico´s interior minister called the state´s governor to offer his support, the state-run Notimex news agency reported. 

 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The bodies of 35 people with suspected links to organized crime were dumped on a road in eastern Mexico on Tuesday in a major escalation of violence in the once-quiet port city of Veracruz. 
 
 Police and members of a forensic team stand around bodies on a motorway in Boca del Rio, on the outskirts of Veracruz September 20, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer 
 
 The bodies were piled into two trucks abandoned under a highway bridge in Boca del Rio, about 3 miles (5 km) from the city centre, horrifying passers-by on the busy thoroughfare. 
 
 Photos circulated on social media networks showed bodies heaped up in the back of the trucks and lying on the tarmac. “Keep away ... hooded men unloaded bodies from trucks, slow traffic, danger zone,” one Twitter user warned. 
 
 Local media reported some of the corpses, of both men and women, had their hands bound and showed signs of torture, and authorities said they were believed to be members of a criminal gang. 
 
 “These were people involved in organized crime,” state prosecutor Reynaldo Escobar told the Milenio television station. All seven people whose bodies were identified in the hours after the dumping had criminal records, he added. 
 
 Violence between rival drug cartels has been heating up in the coffee- and sugar-growing state of Veracruz and daily newspaper Milenio said the dead were members of the feared Zetas crime gang, the target of several recent official round-ups in the region. 
 
 About 42,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched a campaign against drug cartels in late 2006. Most of the violence has been focussed on the northern border with the United States, but has started encroaching on other parts of the country as some gangs fracture and old alliances dissolve. 
 
 UNPRECEDENTED VIOLENCE 
 
 Violent incidents in the Gulf city of Veracruz had been rare until recently, but a group of armed men hurled a grenade into a popular area of the city in August, killing one person. This week, 32 prisoners escaped from jails in Veracruz state, but Escobar said there was no sign any of the escapees were among the dead. 
 
 “We have never seen a situation like this before,” he said. 
 
 The Gulf of Mexico port is used to ship goods to Europe, making it a coveted spot for the crime gangs to control as the groups expand their global reach, said independent Mexican security expert Alberto Islas. 
 
 “Veracruz is an important strategic port. That has always been true for trade and commerce, but it’s now also true for drug exports,” Islas said. 
 
 While the Zetas and Gulf cartels have had a strong foothold in Veracruz, other gangs like the Beltran Leyva and Sinaloa cartel are also moving in, Islas said. 
 
 The Zetas are a paramilitary-style group founded by deserters from Mexico’s army special forces who split off from their former employer, the Gulf cartel. 
 
 They were blamed for a recent attack on a Monterrey casino which killed more than 50 people, many of them women, and for the massacre of 72 migrants last year. 
 
 The Zetas and their former bosses are now fighting a battle for lucrative drug-smuggling routes to the United States in a rivalry which has engulfed the prosperous business city of Monterrey and the state of Tamaulipas in northern Mexico.
– The bodies of 35 people believed to have links to drug cartels were found under a highway bridge in Veracruz during rush hour yesterday. Two trucks containing the corpses were left to block traffic, with their doors left open allowing bodies to spill out, CNN reports. The bodies, both men and women, showed signs of torture. All seven victims identified so far had criminal records that included extortion and drug trafficking, police say. Veracruz had been relatively free of drug-related violence until recently, but violent incidents are now on the rise, Reuters notes. The Zetas cartel, to which the victims found yesterday were believed to belong, is clashing with other cartels seeking to export drugs through the port city. Dozens of prisoners escaped from jails in the area early this week, but investigators say they are not related to yesterday's slaughter.