7 inmates are dead after a prison riot in southern Mexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Seven inmates were killed in a prison riot in southern Mexico, when inmates resisting transfers to other jails fought police with guns and knives, authorities said.

Four police officers and six other inmates were injured in the riot in the city of Villahermosa, the capital of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco.

State police chief Víctor Hugo Chávez said late Thursday that officers were met by gunfire early in the day when they entered the prison to transfer two dangerous inmates to a federal penitentiary.

One of the inmates with a gun held out for about three hours, protected by 20 fellow prisoners.

Chávez did not specify if police opened fire on the group, but said: “Authorities have to act to defend their own lives, too.”

Fires also broke out in the prison during the riot, and crowds of angry, desperate relatives gathered outside the prison, demanding information about family members locked up 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 firearms got into the prison. Jails in Mexico are known for notoriously loose controls and corruption, to the extent that gangs at some penitentiaries control their own cell blocks and extort other prisoners for protection money.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday the riot would be investigated to see “if there was any collusion” and “to see if the (police) operation was correct and why they found weapons inside the prison.”

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The Associated Press