Perth mates Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas are still missing in Mexico, where they were on a surfing trip.

Tyson Keogh told the ABC he hadn’t returned to Mexico since his harrowing ordeal, which happened when he was returning to his hotel after catching waves in Puerto Escondido, a popular tourist area and surfing spot in Oaxaca, in 2008.

He said a car filled with gangsters stopped him as he was walking down a one-way lane after breakfast.

“I noticed one of the guys had a beer so thought it may have been some of the locals I’d met at a party the night before,” Mr Keogh told the ABC.

“But once I got to the car a gun came out and was put to my head, and I realised it wasn’t the people from the night before.”

Mr Keogh handed over the small amount of change he had before he was threatened with a second gun.

“[The back seat passenger] was trying to get me to get in the car,” he said.

“I was freakin’ out.

“I wasn’t getting in the car because you never know where I could have been dumped.”

Mr Keogh said he was struggling with the first attacker and was preparing to run when a taxi came into the street and spooked his attackers.

Monster waves like this one make Puerto Escondido a popular spot for keen surfers. Picture: Billabong/XXLSource:News Limited

“When they saw the taxi they shot off; they freaked out,” he said.

Mr Keogh said he’d heard of dangerous gang activity in Mexico before he visited the country.

“My friend who had grown up there wasn’t too freaked about it,” he said.

“He said I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“My friend was down on me for leaving, but I tried to explain to him where I grew up you don’t even see guns let alone have two guns in your face.”

‘THIS IS A BAD LOOK’: MEXICAN OFFICIALS

This comes as authorities in the Mexican state of Sinaloa fear a bad PR fallout following the disappearance and likely murder of Perth mates Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, both 33.

Authorities have vowed to hunt down and arrest anyone involved in their disappearance or deaths, days after they found a burnt-out van belonging to the pair.

Mr Lucas and Mr Coleman’s families are expected to face another torturous week of waiting before hearing the results of DNA tests on two charred bodies found in the van.

The pair were using it to drive around Mexico on a surfing safari.

“Investigations are under way,” Guadalupe Martinez, a spokesman for the attorney-general of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, told AAP.

Forensic personnel inspect on the charred van, which the Aussie pair were using to travel through Mexico. Picture: AFP Photo/STRSource:AFP

Officials in Sinaloa, fearing a backlash in some of the state’s tourist areas including the coastal city of Mazatlan, have made the Australians’ case a priority.

Sinaloa is attempting to change its image from decades of drug cartel wars, police corruption and extreme violence, including beheadings, kidnappings and torture.

The state is home to the Sinaloa drug cartel headed by fugitive kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who famously made his second dramatic escape from jail earlier this year.

“There is a commitment by the investigating authority to resolve the case immediately and arrest those who caused this,” Sinaloa tourism secretary Francisco Cordova Celaya told Mexico’s Noroeste news website.

A team of special agents have been formed to solve what happened.

“This is a bad look. We will seek to shed light on this and find those responsible,” Sinaloa governor Mario Lopez Valdez told the Proceso news website.

Mr Lucas and Mr Coleman went missing on November 20 after they took the van on a ferry from Baja to the port town of Topolobampo.

They planned to drive to Mr Coleman’s girlfriend’s home 800km away in Guadalajara, but their burnt-out Chevy was found about 200km into the journey near the city of Novalato.

The men, who spoke Spanish, were experienced travellers and regularly kept in contact with family and loved ones, haven’t been heard from since.

Mr Martinez said DNA would be taken from family members in Australia and then checked against samples from the remains in the Chevy.

Mr Martinez said he could guarantee police corruption would not plague the investigation.