Tuxtla Gutierrez (Mexico), March 11 (IANS/EFE): Mexican authorities have found 167 human skeletons from about 50 years ago in a cave in the southeastern state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, prosecutors said.

The Chiapas state Attorney General's Office said in a communique that in some cases "the skulls are complete while in others they are fractured, but all are very fragile and break easily when touched".

The cave is on the Nuevo Ojo de Agua ranch in the Frontera Comalapa municipality, some 350 km from the Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez.

Experts "are doing studies to determine the sex, age and causes of death of each one", the state AG's office said.

Taking part in the work of removing the skeletons from the cave and investigating them are personnel from the federal Attorney General's Office, the Public Safety Secretariat and the Mexican army.

The communique said that no hypothesis has yet been ruled out.