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May 12 (UPI) -- Authorities in Texas are on the lookout for an inmate who escaped during transport on Thursday. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced it is searching for Gonzalo Lopez, 46, after he assaulted a correctional officer on a transport bus and then escaped from the vehicle.
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Lopez, who was serving a life sentence for murder, stabbed and overpowered the driver of the transport bus as it was traveling in Leon County between Dallas and Houston, said Jason Clark, chief of staff for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
It was unclear whether Lopez took control of the bus after attacking the driver or if it simply went off the road.
Injuries sustained by the driver are not believed to be life-threatening.
Clark said there were 16 prisoners aboard the bus but no one else escaped.
Lopez was convicted in 2006 of killing another man along the Texas-Mexico border and had most recently been held at a lockup in Gatesville, Texas, about 100 miles away from where authorities were searching Thursday evening.
