Mexico prison riot kills 4, injures 6
At least four people have been killed during a prison riot in the Mexican city of Victoria, officials say.
Officials said on Wednesday that six others had also been wounded in the Tuesday riot in the drug gang-ravaged state of Tamaulipas.
“Those numbers are preliminary because the operation continues, there are still state police inside the prison inspecting the dormitories,” said the state’s spokesman for security issues, Luis Alberto Rodriguez.
He said prison officials had observed “rising tensions” between opposing gangs in the detention facility over recent days and had information that they were smuggling in weapons.
He further said that two high-caliber weapons and a regular firearm had been found after inspection.
“An intervention was planned which consisted in bringing state police into the prison and having federals support from the outside,” said Rodriguez, adding that had authorities not intervened, the number of casualties would have been higher.
Those killed during the riot were two state police officers, one security guard, and an inmate, according to Rodriguez.
Television footage showed helicopters overhead. Concerned family members gathered outside the prison as heavy gunfire could be heard coming from the compound.
Tamaulipas has long been ravaged by turf battles between the rival Gulf Cartel and Zetas gangs; and in recent years, some of Mexico’s worst drug violence has struck the state.
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