A Mexican priest says gunmen have stormed a northbound train and kidnapped at least 60 illegal immigrants who were trying to get to the United States.

Alejandro Solalinde, who runs a migrant shelter in the southern state of Oaxaca, says 250 people were aboard the train when the abductions happened . He also said some of the passengers managed to flee. The French news agency cites state prosecutors as saying they have no information about the case.

Human rights groups have long criticized Mexico for failing to protect the thousands of migrants, many of them Central Americans, who try to cross the country each year to illegally enter the United States.

Last August, authorities discovered the bodies of 72 slain migrants from Central and South America on a ranch in the northeast Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which borders the U.S. state of Texas. Mexico's Zetas drug gang has been blamed for the massacre.

Tamaulipas is part of the route used by migrants trying to reach the U.S.