REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MEXICO CITY - Forty-three missing students abducted by corrupt police in southwest Mexico six weeks ago were apparently incinerated by drug gang henchmen and their remains tipped in a garbage dump and a river, the government said on Friday.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo said three detainees, caught a week ago, admitted setting fire to a group of bodies in a dump near Iguala in the state of Guerrero, where the trainee teachers went missing on Sept. 26 after clashing with local police. Then, the perpetrators set about removing all the evidence, Murillo told a news conference, showing taped confessions of the detained, photographs of where remains were found and video re-enactments of how the bodies were moved.

"They didn't just burn the bodies with their clothes, they also burned the clothes of those who participated," Murillo said, adding the gang members spent over 12 hours torching the remains. "They tried to erase every possible trace."

The government says police working with a local drug gang abducted the students after the clashes. The kidnapping triggered mass protests in much of the country and seriously undermined President Enrique Pena Nieto's claims that Mexico has become safer on his watch.

The disappearances have been the toughest challenge yet to face Pena Nieto, who took office two years ago vowing to restore order in Mexico, where about 100,000 people have died in violence linked to organized crime since 2007. A grim-faced Pena Nieto said the findings had "shocked and offended" Mexico and pledged to round up everyone involved.

"The investigations will be carried out to the full, all those responsible will be punished under the law," he said.

Dozens of police are among 74 people held in the case. The scandal has forced Pena Nieto to cut short a planned visit to China next week, and angry relatives of the missing students said the government had only made the announcement to clear the path for the president to go.

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