Mexico City, November 13 (teleSUR-RHC)-- At least 15 students from the Ayotzinapa teacher-training college were detained and 20 injured in attacks by state police in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero late Wednesday.

Mexican authorities told local media outlets on Thursday that police attacked students with tear gas and batons after the students had allegedly hijacked a tanker truck carrying 30,000 liters of gasoline. 

Meanwhile, local defense attorney Vidulfo Rosales told Imagen Radio the students were attacked as they were traveling to Mexico City in order to participate in a protest scheduled to take place later this month. 

Student representatives also issued a statement on Thursday denouncing what they described as the “excessive use of force” by Mexican officials against them. 

Soon after the incident, student activist Jose Castillo told PCM Noticias the police had attacked them, breaking bus windows and firing tear gas into the buses.

It was in Guerrero that 43 students were disappeared in September last year, a situation that has drawn international attention to the problems of state corruption and impunity for human rights abuses in Mexico.  Violent crime has also continued to increase in Guerrero since their disappearances.

In October, the Mexican government outlined a new security plan for the state of Guerrero, which will include the deployment of 1,500 additional military forces.       

According to recent figures released by the Mexican government, Guerrero ranked as the state with the second highest number of murders from January–August 2015.