GUERRERO, Oct 14 — Hundreds of teachers armed with rocks, sticks and metal bars clashed with police in southern Mexico yesterday during a protest to demand the return of 43 students missing since an attack by rogue officers.

Riot police battled to push back protesters outside the Guerrero state congress in the regional capital Chilpancingo.

Five teachers and two police officers were slightly injured in the protest, an AFP correspondent said.

A few blocks away, some 200 students blocked the entrance of the government headquarters, voicing anger over the disappearance of the 43 colleagues.

The students, all young men from a teacher training college near Chilpancingo, disappeared after police linked to a gang attacked their buses in the city of Iguala on September 26.

Authorities are investigating whether the students were buried in mass graves found outside Iguala, a city 200km south of Mexico City. — AFP