Buenos Aires, Argentina ? For days, Argentines have been transfixed by news of the slaying of a 23-year-old kidnapping victim — a drama that seemed all too familiar in a country gripped by spiraling crime.

The rage over the death of engineering student Axel Blumberg boiled over late Thursday as more than 100,000 people took to the streets in one of Argentina’s largest demonstrations in years.

For years, Argentines considered their capital a relative island of calm, far removed from the big-city crime plaguing other South American cities like Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Caracas, Venezuela.

But the country’s 2001-2002 economic crisis brought on a crime wave that saw holdups, street robberies, and other crimes soar.

“The Blumberg case has inflamed Argentina,” said pollster Ricardo Rouvier. “The crime problem is so out of hand that everybody now feels they could be a victim.”

Argentine newspaper headlines on Friday captured the mood: “The people said enough is enough!” read the front-page of the country’s largest daily, Clarin.

“Argentines clamor for justice,” said the Buenos Aires Herald.

Axel’s case made headlines beginning in mid-March, when he was abducted by captors seeking a $17,550 ransom.

He became the latest in a string of kidnapping victims whose targets have included business executives, soccer stars and their relatives, and ordinary Argentines.

Government statistics show that over the last year a kidnapping was reported every 48 hours in the Buenos Aires area. Last year, according to police, more than 400 kidnapping cases nationwide were reported.

Axel’s father, Juan Carlos, reportedly negotiated the amount down to about $6,000 with the help of Buenos Aires provincial police. As the captors headed to a drop-off point to receive the money, police reportedly tried to stop them. A gunbattle ensued, and the kidnappers escaped.

Axel reportedly was shot by his kidnappers hours later as he tried to escape from a suburban home where he was being held.

Since his death, the elder Blumberg — a textile businessman — has circulated petitions asking for a change in crime laws and conducted interviews from the doorsteps of his house, railing against local officials for not doing enough to rescue his son.

By sundown Thursday, some 130,000 demonstrators had clogged the plaza outside Congress, lighting thousands of candles and shouting “Justice!”