ELEVEN prisoners have died in a clash in a notorious north Mexican jail where wardens were last year accused of releasing inmates to commit contract killings.
“There was a riot inside the prison and 11 men were killed,” in the jail in the northern city of Gomez Palacio, said Alejandro Moreno, deputy prosecutor for Durango state on Tuesday.
It was initially unclear why the clash broke out or how many prisoners had been wounded, Moreno said.
Mexican jails are notoriously overcrowded and often see deadly riots and mass break-outs, such as the escape of 151 prisoners from a jail in the northeastern border city of Nuevo Laredo last month.
The jail in the latest clash was at the centre of a scandal last July after guards were accused of releasing inmates to carry out drug-related revenge killings.
Dozens of prisoners protested at the jail after state judicial authorities accused prisoners of carrying out 35 killings using their guards’ weapons, including the massacre of 17 people, before returning to their cells.
Four prisoners also died during a clash in the same prison last October.
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