In what has become one of the deadliest riots in Mexico's prisons, a battle broke out between rival drug gangs at the Topo Chico prison in Monterrey, Mexico, late Thursday evening, leaving 52 inmates dead and 12 others injured.
Nuevo Leon state Governor Jaime Rodriguez said the fighting broke out before midnight in two areas of the prison between a faction of the infamous Zetas drug cartel and a rival group, later identified by media as the Gulf Cartel, noting that several prisoners set fire to the food storage and sleeping areas during the riot, according to the Associated Press.
As of 1:30 a.m. the situation was under control. But as the situation settled in the prison, trouble began to escalate outside. Worried family members, catching wind of the incident, poured out into the streets, blocking roads as they demanded information. At one point, distressed family members managed to break through the front gates and threw timber and stones at riot police inside.
"I want to know that my daughter is okay. She is in the infirmary. There are children in there," said one woman outside the prison as other relatives shouted and cursed, according to Reuters.
Rodriguez assuaged their fears saying the areas holding women and elderly inmates were calm, and no children or woman were hurt. He went on to note that all of the those killed in the fight were male and that five of the twelve injured were in serious condition.
"We can confirm the deaths of 52 people. The process of identifying victims continues," he said during a press conference.
It's not clear how the inmates met their end during the brutal fight, since Rodriguez said no guns were involved, according to the BBC, but considering that at least one death there in the past has been attributed to a stabbing, it stands to reason that at least one of Thursday's deaths can be attributed to a similar cause.
Gang violence and breakouts are common in Mexico's notoriously overcrowded and corrupt prison system. In 2014, a humans rights report concluded that the Topo Chico prison had 25 percent more criminals than it could hold, and faulted it for not preventing violent incidents.
In 2012, 44 inmates were killed in a riot at the nearby Apodaca prison, while another 30 prisoners escaped. A year later, 13 people died and 65 others were injured in a fight between inmates at the La Pila jail in the cental state of San Luis Potosi.
However, what may be considered the strongest example of the failures of Mexico's prison system was the high-profile escape of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán from maxium-security prison Altiplano in July 2015. The prison was thought to be impenetrable until he escaped through a tunnel.
