Prisoners stage mass escape from Mexican jail

A total of 129 prisoners escaped from the Piedras Negras jail in northern Mexico, near the border with the United States, through a tunnel, officials confirmed Tuesday. The authorities reduced the figure of escaped inmates from an intial tally of 132, after three women were found hiding inside the prison. "They were hiding, perhaps with the intention of seeking some way to escape," said Jorge Luis Moran, Public Security minister for the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.
The mass escape, which happened Monday, is the second-largest ever recorded in a Mexican jail. Inmates left through a tunnel that was 7 metres long and 1.2 metres wide, and it ran 2.9 metres below the ground. It went from an old carpentry workshop within the prison grounds to one of the watchmen's towers, where three guards were tied up. The city of Piedras Negras lies across the border from the US town of Eagle Pass, Texas.