At least 23 inmates have been killed after a fight broke out between the members of two rival drug gangs at a prison in the outskirts of the northern Mexican city of Durango, said officials on Wednesday.
The fighting is reported to have broken out in an area where prisoners awaiting trials were held, with several other inmates also believed to have been injured in the clashes.
Prison authorities insist they have no idea what caused the fighting, but indicated they have launched an investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, local reports quoting unnamed officials as stating that fighting broke out during breakfast after prisoners linked to the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel clashed with members of rival Gulf cartel and its armed wing, the Zetas.
Such fights between prisoners often break out in Mexico's overcrowded prisons, which have killed over 80 inmates in the past two years. Jail officials often complain of the lack of facilities, and those available are not equipped enough to handle the heavy inflow of prisoners.
At least 20 inmates were killed after similar clashes broke out between prisoners in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez last March, while fighting among inmates at a prison in city of Gomez left at least 19 prisoners dead in 2009 August.
Two separate riots at La Mesa state prison in the border city of Tijuana killed at least 23 people in September 2008, while 21 prisoners were killed in a fight between inmates at a prison in the border city of Reynosa that October.
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