More mass graves were discovered near the town of Iguala in southern Mexico as the search continues for 43 missing college students. (CC/Nick Ramirez Brito)
MEXICO CITY, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Investigators have discovered four more mass graves near the southern Mexican town of Iguala, where 43 college students disappeared after clashing with police on Sept. 26.
On Sunday, Guerrero Attorney General Iñaky Blanco Cabrera announced that alleged assassins with the Guerreros Unidos gang had confessed to working with police to attack the students and provided information that led to the discovery of six shallow graves containing the charred remains of 28 bodies in a remote area outside Iguala.
Identification of the remains was expected to take between two weeks and two months.
The four additional mass graves, discovered in the same vicinity as the others, contained burned bodies, although it was unclear how many bodies were recovered.
Authorities have so far arrested 34 people, mostly local police, in connection with the Sept. 26 attack, said Federal Attorney General Jesus Murillo Kara.
The incident occurred Sept. 26 as students from Normal Rural de Ayotzinapa attempted to leave Iguala aboard three commercial buses they had earlier commandeered (a common practice among students in Mexico and largely tolerated). Police blocked the buses and then opened fire.
Amid a hailstorm of bullets fired by police and armed men in plainclothes, a survivor told GlobalPost "I just wanted to get away."
Eusebio, a student aboard one of the buses, saw some students surrender to police, be beaten and then loaded into the police cars.
Family members of the 43 missing students and demonstrators have taken to the streets in Guerrero, Mexico City, Morelia, Oaxaca, San Cristobal de las Casa and Veracruz to protest organized crime and encourage the government's search for the missing.
