Sixteen inmates were killed and five wounded in a prison fight in the northern Mexican state of Zacatecas, authorities said, in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the country’s penal system since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took power, Trend reports citing Reuters.
The fight broke out around 2:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday at the Regional Center for Social Reintegration in the town of Cieneguillas, located on the western flank of state capital Zacatecas, the state government said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
Local media reported that the dispute was triggered by a soccer game.
The state’s public security ministry did not comment on the cause of the fight, but said in a statement issued on Wednesday that the situation in the prison was under control. It added it was working to release the names of the inmates who had been killed.
After the fight, one inmate was arrested with a firearm, and three more guns were found in the prison, as well as various knives.
The government has launched an investigation to determine those responsible for the fight and how the weapons entered the prison, according to the statement.
Security will be boosted at prisons in the state after the fight, the government said.