Police clear striking teachers from Mexico City

14 September AFP

Anti-riot police stormed Mexico City's historic center to remove striking teachers on Friday, using water cannons to clear the area while protestors responded with firebombs.

Hundreds of federal officers broke through barricades, chasing out a few hundred protestors who had disobeyed a deadline to vacate the Zocalo plaza ahead of the nation's independence day celebrations this weekend.

At least 29 demonstrators were injured in the clashes, the Red Cross said. The National Security Commission said at least 11 police officers were injured while 29 "anarchists" were detained.

Thousands of teachers had been living in a tent city in the square for the past three weeks to protest a major education reform championed by President Enrique Pena Nieto, but most had cleared out before the ultimatum.

After police took back control of the Zocalo -- home to the National Palace, Aztec ruins and the city's cathedral -- clean-up crews came in to pick up trash and plastic tarps ahead of the celebrations on Sunday and Monday.

Some 200 protestors had placed metal barriers and set small trash fires in adjoining streets, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the charging police.

Clashes continued along the city's avenues with hundreds more protestors, with some swinging clubs at the officers, who fired tear gas.

Minutes before the police moved in, Pena Nieto's government released an invitation to the holiday celebrations, with his appearance at the National Palace late Sunday to deliver the annual "Cry of Independence" and a military parade on Monday.

Teachers who had agreed to leave the Zocalo moved their camp to the city's Revolution Monument.

The dissident National Education Workers Coordinator (CNTE) union led several protests in the city for the past three weeks that failed to stop the passage of an overhaul of the education system, which ranks last in the 34-nation Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development.