Ten people have been killed and 16 injured in a fight inside a prison in Mazatlán, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Nine of the dead were inmates. The tenth was a minor who was visiting a relative.
Ten people have been killed and 16 injured in a fight at a prison in Mexico’s north-western state of Sinaloa, Al Jazeera reported, citing state authorities.
What Happened
The violence took place at the El Castillo Penitentiary Centre in the city of Mazatlán.
The Sinaloa Public Security Secretariat said on Thursday, October 8, that the fight had left nine inmates and one family visitor dead.
The state’s secretary of public security, Sinuhe Tellez, said in a video posted on social media that the visitor was a minor.
The Response
- The 16 injured inmates were taken for medical treatment
- A joint group of security forces moved into the prison
- The facility is now “under control”, the secretariat said, with authorities remaining on site
- Visits have been suspended as a precaution
Tellez said social workers were contacting the families of the dead, and that the rest of the prison population was safe.
What Is Not Known
Officials have not said what started the fight.
Nor have they said whether it was connected to the cartel conflict in the state.
The Background
Sinaloa is a battleground for rival factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
It is one of six Mexican states that the US State Department advises Americans not to visit because of security concerns.
Members of the Mexican army were photographed standing guard outside the prison after reports of the riot.
Image: Mazatlán, in Mexico’s Sinaloa state (file photo, 2021). Photo by Dennis Sylvester Hurd via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
