Drugs boss El Chapo barely escaped being shot by Mexican marines at his jungle hideout - because he was holding a little girl in his arms, it has emerged.

Joaquin Guzman was tracked down to his mountain-top hideaway in Mexico in October four days after his controversial meet up with actor Sean Penn but he escaped by scrambling down a hillside.

Dozens of marines descended on the ranch in Tamazula de Victoria and one is said to have had the drugs lord in his crosshairs.

Drugs boss El Chapo barely escaped being shot by Mexican marines at his jungle hideout - because he was holding a little girl in his arms, it has emerged

The New York Post reports Mexican media as saying that the Marine did not pull the trigger because he was carrying a young child.

Guzman has told authorities how he sprinted down a hill from his remote hideaway, which had been guarded with outposts, before meeting up with a bodyguard and going on the run.

He is believed to have survived by begging for food from villagers in the Mexican state of Durango.

After slipping from the grasp of authorities, Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was captured on Friday following a months-long manhunt.

Mexico has said it plans to extradite him to the United States, where he is wanted for exporting hundreds of tonnes of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin across the border.

The media were on Monday granted access to the house where Guzman was holed up before his capture.

Yet again, he escaped into a tunnel for a few hours, leaving behind a building that was a shambolic mess of bullet holes, bloodstains and decaying food.

Joaquin Guzman was tracked down to his mountain-top hideaway in Mexico in October four days after his controversial meet up with actor Sean Penn but escaped by scrambling down a hillside

El Chapos house in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, was stormed by Mexican marines in the early hours of Friday morning

Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez said while extraditing kingpins takes on average a year, it could take up to five years in Guzman's case.

Still, speaking on condition of anonymity, another senior Mexican official later said the government had no interest in letting the process drag out.

Rolling Stone magazine published an article by Penn on Saturday based on his interview with Guzman.

Gomez said a line of investigation had been opened into the meeting between Guzman and Penn in early October at a jungle hideout, adding that any possible criminal investigation against the actor-director would depend on what, if any, deals he struck with Guzman.

U.S. investigators will also examine Penn's interactions with Guzman, two U.S. government sources said on Monday, but it was unclear if prosecutors would try to force the actor to turn over information about the interview.

Mexican actress Kate del Castillo accompanied Penn to the meeting at an undisclosed location. Mexico's government had been following a Guzman lawyer who accompanied them.

Mexican daily El Universal published photographs on Monday of Penn and Castillo that it said showed the pair being tracked at the time.

Rolling Stone magazine published an article by Sean Penn (left) on Saturday based on his interview with Guzman (right)

Security: Guzman has been moved eight times at the Altiplano prison (pictured) after he was recaptured on Friday

'It (the meeting) was an essential element, because we were following (Guzman's) lawyer, and the lawyer took us to these people and to this meeting,' Gomez told local radio.

Penn, who has been criticized in the United States and in Mexico for visiting Guzman, told the Associated Press on Monday: 'I've got nothin' to hide.'

Reuters could not reach del Castillo for comment.