Mexico says drug gangs killed kidnapped students

The college students clashed with police in the city of Iguala, where they were collecting donations and had commandeered public buses, on September 26.

The Mexican authorities say local police, acting on the orders of the former Mayor Jose Luis Abarca, opened fire on the students, killing six people.

Police then took 43 of the young people away and handed them over to members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, who carried out a bloody massacre.

Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam played video of purported gang members confessing to the killings and describing what they did.

Mr Murillo said the gang members, caught a week ago, admitted setting fire to bodies in a dump near Iguala, then removing all the evidence by dumping the incinerated remains in the river.

Another video showed hundreds of charred fragments of bone and teeth that had been dumped in and along the San Juan River in the neighbouring town of Cocula.

Other remains were found in a mass grave, ground up after having been burned.

The attorney general said the state of the remains will make it hard to identify them using DNA. The authorities are using a specialised laboratory in Austria but it is not known how long the process of identification could take.

At a news conference, parents of the students said they did not trust the Mexican government’s version of events.

One father, Felipe de la Cruz, said: “After more than 40 days we continue with the same circumstances and today they are again hoping to make society believe that the the young men are dead.”

We want to say that as parents of the family that in no way do we accept this declaration

A mother of one of the students said: “We want to say that as parents of the family that in no way do we accept this declaration that was given because, he himself ( Mr Murillo) included, has said that he is not sure that it is for certain.

“With this we don’t want to say that we’re closed to any results. We want results but with proof. The moment that we as parents of the family, as family are sure of what the attorney general is saying is the truth, only at this moment will we accept it whatever the result.”

The relatives said Mexico’s president, Entique Pena Nieto, has not kept his promise to help the families in every possible way, saying he still refuses to sign a petition they presented to him.

Mr Nieto pledged his support for the parents and vowed “the guilty will be punished under the rule of law.”

Some 74 people have been detained so far in the case, including the former mayor Abarca and his wife.

About 100,000 people have died in violence linked to organised crime in Mexico since 2007.