7 people died when the police tried to transfer 2 dangerous prisoners to Mexico

Seven inmates were killed in a massacre at a prison in southern Mexico, when inmates who refused to be transferred to other prisons fought with police with guns and knives, authorities said late Thursday.

Four police officers and six other prisoners were injured in the massacre in the city of Villahermosa, the capital of the Gulf Coast state, Tabasco.

The head of the state police, Víctor Hugo Chávez, said on Thursday night that the police were met with gunfire in the morning when they entered the prison to transfer two dangerous prisoners to the state prison.

One of the inmates with a gun was held for about three hours, protected by 20 other inmates, officials said.

Chávez did not specify whether the police opened fire on the group, but said: “The authorities must act to protect their lives.”

Fires also broke out in the prison during the riot, and crowds of angry relatives gathered, demanding information about the family members locked up inside.

After taking control of the facility a few hours later, authorities found an assault rifle, five rifles, a hand grenade, 23 machetes, 14 knives and 23 homemade shivs.

They did not explain how the guns got into the prison. Mexican prisons are notorious for lax control and corruption, to the extent that gangs of some inmates control their cells and extort other inmates for protection.

Last year, an attack on the state prison in Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas it killed 17 peopleincluding 10 guards. 25 inmates escaped in the attack, which authorities said was designed to free a local gang leader.

In 2016, a Prison riots left 49 inmates robbed, beaten or burned to death in Topo Chico prison in Mexico.