Chilpancingo, Mexico, Jun 10 (EFE).- Two guards were killed by gunmen who assisted nine inmates in escaping from a prison in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero over the weekend, officials said.
Gunmen broke into the prison in La Union, located in the state's Costa Grande region, and helped the nine convicts get out, the Guerrero Public Safety Secretariat said.
Guards Emigdio Castro Texta, 35, and Efrain Torres Gomez, 28, were killed by the gunmen, who were armed with assault rifles and pistols, around 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, the secretariat said.
Another guard and an inmate were wounded in the incident, the secretariat said.
Inmates Jorge Luis Ventura, Abelardo Garcia, Jose Antonio Martinez, Felix Campos, Misael Pineda, Jesus Castro, Vicencio Delgado, Erick Rodriguez and Gonzalo Lara managed to escape, officials said.
Warden Manuel Damian Chavarria apparently fled when the attack started and his whereabouts is unknown.
Police and army troops launched sweeps in the area near the border with Michoacan state in an effort to locate the inmates.
Prison breaks and riots are common in Mexico.
More than 130 inmates escaped from the prison in Piedras Negras, a border city in northern Mexico, using a tunnel last September.
It was the biggest prison break in Mexico since Dec. 17, 2010, when 141 inmates escaped from a penitentiary in Nuevo Laredo, a border city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
