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3 prisoners die in riot after jailbreak in Mexico

Published : 26 Mar 2017, 00:30

  DF-Xinhua Report

Three prisoners died and another was injured during a prison riot in the northern state of Tamaulipas, the same prison where 29 prisoners escaped on Wednesday, the government announced.

Tamaulipas' security spokesperson said Saturday that the riot in the Ciudad Victoria prison had taken place after authorities moved in to restore order after the jailbreak.

The official report stated that groups of prisoners set fire to debris and began fighting around 10:00 p.m. on Friday.

The violence was brought under control in the early hours of Saturday, after the prisoners were returned to their cells and emergency teams controlled the fire.

"Three dead and one severely injured during a fight between prisoners. Prison under control measures. Situation is the result of actions to re-establish order," reported the spokersperson on Twitter. The attacks were reportedly coming from bladed weapons.

On Wednesday night, 29 prisoners escaped the prison through a tunnel, 40 meters long and 5 meters wide, with security forces having recaptured 13 since and 16 still missing.

The state's prosecutor-general has opened an investigation into the prison director, its head of security and 38 guards to determine how a tunnel could have been built without being noticed.

Since then, authorities have also destroyed a number of makeshift stores, which served food and alcohol to the prisoners, with the tunnel having been dug from inside one of them, said the government report.