10 dead, 16 injured as prison riot rocks Mexico for second time in a week

A prison riot in Sinaloa left nine inmates and a visitor dead, with 16 prisoners injured. The violence came as another prison in Ciudad Victoria saw a deadly shootout that renewed scrutiny of chronic jail failures.A prison riot in Sinaloa left nine inmates and a visitor dead, with 16 prisoners injured. (Image: Reuters)New Delhi,Oct 9, 2026 09:57 ISTA prison riot in Mexico's violence-plagued state of Sinaloa left nine prisoners and one visitor dead on Thursday, the state's security office said. The incident also injured 16 inmates, while authorities brought the prison under control. Prosecutors will investigate the cause of the violence, the security office said in a statement.The incident comes amid a history of deadly prison violence in Mexico. In a separate incident at a prison in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the border state of Tamaulipas, continuous automatic gunfire erupted late Tuesday and continued into Wednesday morning. Authorities reported that they had regained control of the facility by late morning.The state security spokesman's office said three police officers and four inmates died in the shootouts, while six police officers and seven prisoners sustained injuries. Inmates at the state prison had somehow obtained firearms and began fighting authorities.Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said on Wednesday that it had sent a delegation to the prison to document the incident and check the health of inmates. The commission said it had audited the facility in 2016 and identified several problems, including overcrowding, inadequate supervision, insufficient personnel, poor health services and conditions in which inmates exercised self-government. The Ciudad Victoria prison has repeatedly witnessed shootings, the smuggling of firearms, riots and escapes. The city has long been dominated by the Zetas drug cartel, known for its extreme violence.In March, a fight between prisoners at the same facility left three inmates dead. That clash followed a riot and a mass escape through a tunnel that inmates had built in a prison yard. Authorities have since recaptured most of the escapees. Inmates have frequently had access to firearms inside the prison. During the March escape, at least one prisoner carried a gun and used it to kill a passing motorist during a carjacking. Police later recovered two assault rifles buried in a planter inside the prison.- EndsWith agency inputs.