State police in central Mexico said 11 officers were injured by student protesters Friday, while video circulated on social media showing a police bus hitting and knocking over at least one demonstrator.
Michoacán state Public Safety Secretary Israel Patrón said students from “Vasco de Quiroga” Teachers' College blocked a road and then attacked officers using fireworks, stones, and sticks. Police tried to stop them and a confrontation ensued, he said.
Video images posted on the college’s social media page showed a chaotic scene in which detonations can be heard and clouds of smoke or gas are seen.
Dozens of protesters are running in the road when a bus with blue-and-white state police markings appears, makes a sudden U-turn, and knocks over a protester before escaping.
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The driver of the official bus told authorities he was trapped by the students and was not able to get off the bus.
He said a group of students hot on the bus and started to hit him while he was trying to move and he lost control of the vehicle.
He asserted the struggle cause the bus to move toward the rest of the students without him being able to stop it.
He added that since the students were not able to take over the official vehicle, they tore it down a bit farther.
Patrón said that was not “an intentional attack” by police . “It was done by the bus driver while he was engaged in a struggle with two students who were trying to take over the bus,” he said.
The official said one student suffered an injury to his leg, was treated and released.
The rural teachers’ college in the Michoacán town of Tiripetío trains mainly working-class youths to be teachers in remote communities.
While the school is government-funded, students complain of a chronic lack of resources. The school promotes a leftist ideology and its students have frequently clashed with police in the past, and have often seized private trucks and buses to enforce their demands.
mp