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Inmates Seize Prison in Riot After Flood

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Associated Press

Angered by 6 1/2-foot-deep flood waters rising even higher, inmates took control of their swamped prison in a riot that left at least eight inmates dead Friday, authorities said.

Hundreds of rioting inmates took over the Center for Social Readaptation to protest the increasingly dangerous flooding and food shortages. Large parts of Villahermosa, a city of 470,000 people in southeastern Mexico, have been underwater for more than two weeks.

Prisoners with pipes, clubs and machetes tried to break through a wall but were turned back by police.

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They then turned on one another, officials said.

Authorities on Thursday evacuated 600 prisoners by boat, but 800 remained in the prison Friday.

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