Mexico's government has ordered the arrest of the mayor of the southern town of Iguala, where six people died and 43 students disappeared after clashing with local police last month.

Mexico's chief prosecutor said Mayor Jose Luis Abarca ordered the police operation, to stop the students disrupting an event hosted by his wife.

The couple are said to be on the run.

The protesting students were last seen being bundled into police cars after the clashes on 26 September.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said Mr Abarca, his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda and police chief Felipe Flores were wanted "as the individuals who likely organised the events that took place in Iguala on 26 September".

He also alleged that Ms Pineda had links to a local drug gang Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors).

Municipal police officers arrested in connection with the clashes reportedly confessed to handing the students over to the gang.

Its suspected leader, Sidronio Casarrubias, was arrested last week.

Separately, demonstrators protesting against the disappearances set fire to Iguala's town hall on Wednesday.

There were also demonstrations in other Mexican towns and cities.

Search continues

The students had travelled to Iguala to protest and raise funds for their college.

Police opened fire on their buses as they were travelling back to their town, Ayotzinapa. Six people, three of them students, were killed in the shootings.

The 43 were declared missing in the following days.

The discovery of several mass graves around the town of Iguala has raised concerns about the students' fate.

But DNA tests showed they were not among 30 bodies that have been analysed so far. The identity of the bodies remains unclear.

The Mexican government has offered a reward of 1.5 million pesos ($110,000, £68,000) for information on their whereabouts.

More than 1,200 federal police have been deployed to look for them in and around Iguala.

(BBC)