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CIUDAD JUAREZ: Seventeen inmates died, including one woman, and four were hurt in a prison riot in Mexico's most deadly city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Tuesday.
Officials initially said the inmates had sought to break out of the jail in the border city across from El Paso, Texas, after rioting started late Monday.
“It was first believed to be an escape attempt, but it turns out it was a revenge attack between groups in the prison,” said Carlos Gonzalez, spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office, on Milenio television.
Some of the deceased bore bullet wounds, and authorities were investigating if the weapons used in the fighting were stolen from prison guards, homemade or smuggled into the jail, he added.
Rioting started late Monday and police brought the situation under control some six hours later, Gonzalez said.
The inmates had been jailed for crimes including extortion, murder and kidnappings, authorities said, in a city where rival gangs are fighting for control of lucrative drug trafficking routes into the United States. Mexican prisons see frequent violence including riots, killings and breakouts.
