Mass Graves in Mexico Could Hold Missing Students

Investigators are still trying to identify 28 "savagely slaughtered" bodies found in mass graves outside the Mexican city of Iguala—but they fear they have found evidence of an atrocity carried out by local police with ties to organized crime. Six students were killed when a group of students clashed with police in the city in Guerrero state late last month, and DNA tests will be carried out on the badly burned bodies that have been recovered to discover whether they are among the 43 students, mostly men in their early 20s, who went missing after the incident, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The state's chief prosecutor says it could take up to two weeks to identify the bodies found in the graves, which were found after an anonymous tip. Some 22 local police officers are among more than 30 people who have been arrested over the incident, and the city's mayor and police chief are now fugitives, the BBC reports. The teachers' college the students attended is known for militant protests, and the discovery of the graves sparked a huge protest in the state capital from parents and around 2,000 supporters, who put a huge banner saying, "You took them alive, we want them returned alive" over the highway linking Mexico City and Acapulco, reports the AP. (More Mexico stories.)