Mexico City, Sep 27 (IANS): Thousands of Mexicans staged a rally here to demand justice for the 43 students who went missing four years ago.

"We value the effort of the people who have been with us because it is an important demand, if this movement fails, the bad people win," Felipe de la Cruz, spokesperson for the parents of the disappeared students, told Efe news on Wednesday.

The demonstration started on Wednesday evening from the Angel of Independence monument in downtown Mexico City and proceeded along the Paseo de la Reforma Avenue to end at the Zocalo square.

Groups of students, teachers and human rights defenders, among others, joined the march carrying numerous banners and chanting: "They were taken alive and alive we want them back."

The march was led by families of the 43 students, with signs and T-shirts showing the faces of their missing loved ones and the slogan "we are missing 43".

On September 26, 2014, the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College were forcibly taken and then disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico.

It is still not clear what happened to the students but according to a government probe, they were handed over to a local cartel and killed.