Mexican authorities are trying to identify four burned bodies discovered Friday at a ranch near the Mexican border city of Palomas, the El Paso Times reported.

Police found the bodies after being notified by the owner of Rancho Los Lamentos that he had lost contact with one of his ranch hands, the Times reported.

Two of the ranch's five buildings were found burned, and all four victims were found in one of the buildings, according to the Times.

Mexico's Forensic Medical Service is conducting an investigation into the identities of the four and the cause of death, the paper said.

According to an Albuquerque Journal story in Saturday's paper, Palomas' Police Chief Emilio Perez went to the Columbus Port of Entry late last Tuesday seeking asylum in the United States, saying he feared for his safety.

Perez was taken to a Border Patrol processing center in El Paso for further interviews, the Journal reported.

Typically a person seeking asylum is questioned to determine whether he has a credible fear of harm if he is returned to his home country, immigration officials told the Journal.

Friday's discovery is only the latest example of the violence that has wracked this border town of 8,000 people.

El Diario of Juarez reported Friday that two bodies wrapped in blankets had been dumped alongside a road near Palomas, the Journal reported.

And Luna County (N.M.) Sheriff Raymond Cobos told the Journal that he had been informed of two other people being killed in Palomas the weekend before last.

At least four men were shot and killed in Palomas in February in what local officials believe is a violent battle for control by rival drug gangs, the Journal reported.

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