Seven inmates were killed in a prison riot in southern Mexico, when inmates resisting transfers to other prisons faced police with guns and knives, authorities said late Thursday.
Four police officers and six other inmates were injured in the riot in the city of Villahermosa, capital of the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco.
State police chief Víctor Hugo Chávez said late Thursday that the officers were met with gunfire early in the day when they entered the prison to transfer two dangerous inmates to a federal headquarters.
One of the inmates with a gun was held out for about three hours, guarded by 20 other inmates, officials said.
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Chávez did not specify whether the police opened fire on the group, but he said: “Authorities must intervene to protect their own lives as well.”
Fires also broke out in the prison during the riot, and a large crowd of angry, desperate relatives gathered outside the prison, demanding information about family members trapped inside.
After regaining control of the facility several hours later, authorities found an assault rifle, five pistols, a hand grenade, 23 machetes, 14 knives and 23 homemade shivs.
They did not explain how the guns got into the prison. Mexican prisons are notorious for loose controls and corruption, to the extent that some inmates have gangs controlling their own cell blocks and attacking other inmates for protection money.
Last year, a state prison in Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas was attacked 17 people were killedincluding 10 guards. Twenty-five inmates escaped in the raid, which authorities say was designed to free a local gang leader.
In 2016, a prison riot leaves 49 inmates hacked, beaten or burned to death in Topo Chico prison in Mexico.
