MORELIA, Mexico -- Federal police began an investigation Thursday of a prison riot that killed 10 prisoners and wounded at least 13 others, amid reports that some of the rioters and prison staff were missing.
A statement from the Michoacan state governor's office said prisoners, penitentiary officials and guards were wounded in the rioting and breakout Wednesday at the Centro Penitenciario in the central highlands state of Michoacan.
'A group of highly dangerous inmates firing arms headed the large scale attempted breakout,' the statement said. 'Ten people were killed and 13 wounded. They also temporarily took 23 hostages.
'During the incident, (the inmates) managed to wound the deputy administrator of the center, the commander of the security police guard and a few guards,' it said.
Newspapers in Morelia said they received reports of some 40 missing prisoners and staff, and said the facility's director had not yet been located. Other reports said the director was on vacation, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
It was also unclear how many of the missing prisoners actually were escapees.
About 300 family members of the inmates met Thursday with Michoacan Minister of State Genovevo Figueroa, where they charged that at least 35 prisoners were killed and at least 30 more were missing.
Authorities denied that more than 10 people were killed, and said they would investigate the reports of missing prisoners.
'As of right now, we don't have precise information about missing prisoners because the rioters burned prison records and it will take a while to account for all the men here,' said state attorney general spokesman Itzaura Gutierrez in a telephone interview.
'We have not yet found the instigators of the breakout, either inside or outside of the prison,' Gutierrez said.
Michoacan's state attorney general, Jose Franco Villa, said the gunbattle at the prison lasted about two hours and apparently stemmed from complaints of overcrowding, the Mexico City newspaper Ultimas Noticias reported.
'The rioting began when two prisoners were taken to testify. They were able to disarm the guards while other prisoners took advantage of the situation to disarm the guards that were at the second door of the exit gate,' he said.
Other prisoners took over courts located in the penitentiary and began to burn court orders. They held hostage 15 secretaries and eight nurses during the shootout, Franco Villa said.
The attorney general said judicial police who searched the jail after the rioting found about 30 rifles and revolvers, but he was not able to explain how the arms were smuggled into the prision. Incendiary devices also were used during the clash, he said.
Ten prisoners who broke out of the jail in Morelia, 350 miles northwest of Mexico City, were later recaptured, but the governor's office did not say if all inmates who escaped were later apprehended. Local reporters said between 15 and 20 prisoners broke out of the penitentiary.
'The armed inmates fooled and disarmed the five guards and one of the security policemen, and with this new armament they increased the fire against the security detail,' the governor's statement said.
Authorities believe visitors to the prison helped set up the escape. 'The attempted breakout took advantage of visitor's day. A considerable number of family members and friends of the inmates were' at the prison, the statement said.
Local authorities said five prison workers were injured in the melee.
Franco Villa described the inmates as 'highly dangerous' and said most of the rioters wereserving sentences on convictions of murder, drug trafficking and bank robbery.
'The took weapons from prison guards to intensify the riot, and launched Molotov cocktails, destroying a large part of the administration building, courtrooms and offices of the Public Security Ministry,' Gutierrez said.
