POPULAR Brit holiday destination Cancun has smashed its horrific murder record with 540 grisly murders in 2018.

With 313 more murders than last year, the tropical Mexican city's reputation is rapidly becoming for its death rate rather than for its picturesque views.

The most recent find of human remains in Cancun was after locals reported the discovery of black bin liner bags on the side the road, according to local news Quinta Fuerza.

One bag was torn open, exposing a decapitated human head and pair of arms.

Once the police arrived, they cordoned off the area and later handed over the scene to the ministerial police of the state attorney general’s office.

The bags contained what appeared to be the dismembered bodies of two unknown male victims.

Both were apparently tortured and exposed to fire, according to the ministerial police, reported Breitbart.

The tourist hotspot is in the grips of a violent and growing crime wave that threatens to leave it a ghost town.

Drug-related violence in Mexico has increased massively in recent years with murders now commonplace.

Morgues even closed down in the Mexican state of Guerrero after they were inundated with gangland victims.

Many fatalities are those killed in turf wars between the different gangs competing for trafficking routes into the US.

Cops are trying to protect tourist destinations like Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Nuevo Vallarta.

However, in the first three months of 2018 more than 100 people were killed in Cancun alone.

In one 36-hour spell in April 2018 NINE PEOPLE were murdered.

On April 21, gunmen on water scooters shot at a beach vendor in Cancun's hotel zone, though nobody was hurt.

The following month a beach vendor was killed in a double shooting on a Cancun beach by a gang on a speedboat.

And in August, eight bodies were found after a cartel murder spree - with two of the victims dismembered and found in separate plastic bags.

US authorities issued a "Level 2" advisory warning to travellers to "exercise increased caution", adding "violent crime such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery is widespread".

Violence has escalated to such an extent that the murder rate has doubled in the past year - with 169 killings recorded in the first half of last year alone.

Amid a thriving drug trade and widespread extortion, fear is rampant and most of the murders go unsolved, reports news.com.

Now, the situation is so dire that its multi-billion dollar tourism industry is under threat.

British journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy travelled to Mexico for SBS’s Dateline to investigate why so many murders are taking place.

“This is one of the most beautiful views in the world and we are the only people here,” Guru-Murthy said from Cancun’s main beach.

This was once one of the world’s most glamorous locations but is now Mexico’s murder capital.

Despite troops patrolling the city’s streets and beaches, extortion and murder are rife and many businesses have been forced to close.