Three inmates escaped during a riot and fire at a prison outside Mexico City that left 10 prisoners and seven police officers injured, authorities said Tuesday.
Authorities deployed some 1,000 police officers to contain late Monday's unrest at the Barrientos prison in the municipality of Tlalnepantla, a densely populated suburb.
"A fight occurred between several inmates" and prisoners set fire to mattresses and other objects, which were extinguished, said Jose Manzur, government secretary of the State of Mexico.
Order was restored within three hours, but prison officials realised that three inmates were missing when they did a roll call, Manzur said.
"We think that as a result of this fight in the prison, three people took advantage of it to escape," Manzur said.
The fugitives include a murderer, a rapist and a house burglar. Authorities are searching for them and offering a $15,000 reward for their capture.
Officials had initially reported that nobody was hurt, but Manzur said seven officers and 10 inmates were injured. One prisoner remained in hospital while the rest were cleared by doctors.
Some 150 relatives of inmates, some in tears, flocked to the prison overnight to get information. Many were still outside the prison on Tuesday morning.
"I want to tell the families of the inmates that they have nothing to worry about, (the riot) was controlled with minimal effort," State of Mexico security chief Eduardo Valiente said late Monday after visiting the prison.
It is the latest unrest to hit a Mexican prison.
In February, 49 inmates were killed in a massive brawl at the Topo Chico prison in the northern city of Monterrey. Three others were murdered earlier this month at the same prison.
A report by the National Human Rights Commission found that inmates govern themselves in 71 state prisons, which are also overcrowded.
The Barrientos prison has 3,000 inmates, double the normal capacity, Manzur said.
Several escapes have also taken place, such as the July 2015 prisonbreak of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who was recaptured in January.
&uuid=(email))