At least 13 people have died and eight badly injured in prison riots

A group of inmates with ties to the Gulf Cartel started protesting against the prison warden Edgardo Aguilar in Nuevo Leon, northern Mexico.

The rioters associate the warden with a rival gang called Los Zetas.

Nuevo Leon Government spokesman Diana Adame said: "The leaders of the inmate groups agreed to get back in their cells to present a petition.”

The riot started around 7:00am when the prisoners started burning trash and mattresses in the patios of the prison.

They climbed onto the roof with signs about Aguilar Aranda.

Government Secretary Manuel Gonzalez came to the prison to carry out negotiation with the inmates.

Hours of negotiations failed and police using non-lethal force could not quell the riot, Fasci said.

Fasci told reporters that security forces entered the Cadereyta prison outside the city of Monterrey and used deadly force to protect prison guards and other inmates.

Fasci said: “It is 4,000 inmates against 300 guards.

"It's very difficult to keep them in order.

“If they had not taken these decisions right now we would be talking about many more dead.”

Fasci said the riot got out of control, one prisoner was killed and a number of guards were taken hostage.

He added it was not immediately clear how many people were killed in the fight and how many were killed by security forces.

There were 60 police patrols dispatched to the scene along with a helicopter that flew over the area.

The helicopter crew urged inmates to get off the roof to start negotiations.

Families waited outside the desperately demanding information from the authorities about their relatives inside.

Rival gangs involved in drug trafficking, human smuggling, fuel theft, kidnapping and extortion have fuelled violent battles in Mexico’s prisons.

There was a fight among inmates in Cadereyta Prison last March that left five prisoners dead and 20 others injured.

The National Human Rights Commission warned that the “self-government” exercised by criminals in prisons showed the Nuevo Leon penitentiary system’s lack of authority.

Things are made worse by the overcrowding in the prisons which typically sparks violence.

(Evangle Luo of TTFLY shared with you)