New mass graves found in search for 43 missing Mexican students
PUBLISHED : Friday, 10 October, 2014, 9:09pm
UPDATED : Friday, 10 October, 2014, 9:09pm
Agence France-Presse in Iguala, Mexico
Members of the Public Safety System, the community police of Guerrero state, are seen in vehicles as they help in the search for the missing 43 students in the town of Las Juntas outside Iguala, southern Mexican. Photo: Reuters
The case of 43 Mexican students missing since an attack by gang-linked police took another grim turn with the discovery of new mass graves where suspects said some were buried.
Four new suspects on Thursday took investigators to the site of the four pits, 200km south of Mexico City, but the number of bodies remained unknown, said Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam.
"They say there are remains of students," Murillo Karam said, adding that some of the bodies appeared burned.
Two effigies with photos of missing students are seen during a march in Mexico City. Photo: Reuters
The discovery has put another dent on hopes of finding the students alive almost two weeks after they were pursued by Iguala police officers accused of working in tandem with the Guerreros Unidos gang.
The pits were "relatively" close to the location of another mass grave found last weekend in the southern state of Guerrero that contained 28 unidentified bodies, Murillo Karam said. Two hitmen confessed to executing 17 students and dumping them in a grave found last Saturday. Authorities have said it would take at least two weeks to identify the bodies through DNA analysis.
The case has outraged Mexicans, who held protests across the country on Wednesday to demand the return of the students.
