Authorities say 13 injured latest violence at prison in Ciudad Victoria, northern Mexico, a city long dominated by the Zetas drug cartel

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A gun battle that raged for hours inside a prison inside northern Mexico has left seven dead and 13 injured, authorities reported on Wednesday.

Continuous automatic gunfire was heard late Tuesday at the prison in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the border state of Tamaulipas.

'You can’t trust anybody': the Mexicans caught up in the drug war just south of Texas Read more

The gunfire continued into Wednesday morning at the prison, which has been one of Mexico’s most troubled lockups.

The state security spokesman’s office said Wednesday that seven people died and 13 were injured in the shootouts. Authorities said earlier that the dead included three police officers; it was unclear whether the rest of the dead were inmates.

Inmates at the state prison somehow managed to obtain guns and began fighting authorities.

The prison has been the scene of shootings, smuggled guns, riots and escapes. Ciudad Victoria has long been dominated by the hyper-violent Zetas drug cartel.

A fight between prisoners at the same facility left three inmates dead in March. That clash followed a riot and mass escape through a tunnel that inmates built in a prison patio.

Most of the prisoners have since been recaptured.

Inmates have frequently had access to guns in the prison.

During the March escape, at least one prisoner had a gun that he used to kill a passing motorist in a carjacking.

Police later found two assault rifles buried in a planter in the prison.