An explosion has occurred outside Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, injuring police as protesters demonstrating ahead of the anniversary of the 2014 disappearance of 43 students clashed with officers in riot gear.

A number of police officers were injured by the explosion and taken away in ambulances. B

Members of a bomb squad cordoned off the area.

The protest was just one of a host of activities planned in advance of Monday’s eighth anniversary of the students’ disappearances.

Mexico Protest
Demonstrators throw stones at the police (Fernando Llano/AP)

On September 26 2014, police in Iguala, Guerrero, abducted 43 students from a radical teachers’ college. They were allegedly turned over to a drugs gang and never seen again. Three victims were later identified by burned bone fragments.

Last month, interior undersecretary Alejandro Encinas, who leads a truth commission investigating the case, called it a “state crime” and directly implicated the military, among other state actors including local and state police.

Former attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam, who oversaw the original investigation into the disappearances, was arrested last month on charges of torture, official misconduct and forced disappearance.

Last week, Mexico arrested a retired general, who had been in charge of the local army base in Iguala when the abductions occurred.

Dozens of student protesters arrived at the Attorney General’s Office on board buses on Thursday morning. Police with helmets and riot shields formed several lines of defence in front the entrances.

On Wednesday, activists had vandalised the exterior of Israel’s embassy in Mexico City.

Mexico is seeking the extradition from Israel of another key figure in the investigation of the students’ disappearance.