Protesters in Mexico City Mark First Anniversary of Students' Abduction

Saturday saw thousands of people taking to the streets in Mexico City to pay tribute to the 43 students who disappeared on September 26, 2014 after a clash with police in the city of Iguala, media reports said.

An estimated 8,000 protesters demanded a new investigation from the Mexican government amid reports that about 3,000 police officers were deployed in Mexico City, where a whole array of streets in the center were blocked because of the mass demonstrations.

The parents of the kidnapped students and their supporters held signs that read "Where are our boys?", "We are lacking 43!" and "Crime of the State", among others.

The parents demanded a new investigation into the case, voicing dissatisfaction with the lack of a response from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

"We can't rest in our search," Felipe de la Cruz, the spokesman for the families of the students was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

A year ago, 43 students went missing in Iguala after protesting against discriminatory hiring and funding practices in the city. The students were last seen being forced into police vans after the officers had opened fire on a crowd, killing six.

Initially, the authorities blamed the alleged abduction on local drug cartels and criminal gangs. However, additional evidence, provided by independent experts, indicated that the real culprits were the local Mexican Federal Police and army, who were responsible for the kidnappings. The experts also said that the federal government was aware of the situation as it was developing.

"I feel very hopeless because the government did not give us a response. From the experts we have gotten a lot, from Pena Nieto, nothing, Cristina Bautista, the mother of one of the disappeared students, said, as quoted by media reports.

Pena Nieto, for his part, wrote on his Twitter page that "we will advance the investigation in accordance with the law and ensure that the perpetrators face a trial."

Earlier, he met the parents of the disappeared students, saying that "we are on the same side; we are searching for the truth together."

He also pledged to set up a new special prosecutor's office to investigate more than 20,000 disappearances in Mexico.

The Saturday protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations to demand an additional investigation into the case.