June 7 (UPI) -- Mexican officials said at least three security officers and one inmate died after a prison riot in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the Tamaulipas state.
The riot, which lasted at least 3 hours, began Tuesday night after state police officers checked to see if weapons were smuggled into the prison.
"The preliminary balance is four dead and six injured. Three of the deceased are police and an inmate," public safety spokesman Luis Alberto Rodríguez said.
El Universal reported, citing unofficial sources, that at least five other inmates are also possibly dead.
After the riot broke out, a large police presence mobilized to the scene. Families of inmates then flooded the area. Some attempted to prevent a police riot truck access to the prison.
"They're going to kill them. They're going to kill them," a lady who identified herself as an inmate's mother shouted.
Authorities at the prison said more information would be released after security forces took full control of the prison and located any more possible weapons.
Another prison riot in Mexico occurred in late March in which at least two inmates were killed in the state of Nuevo León.
