A tunnel believed to have taken several months to build took 29 inmates to freedom this morning from a prison in Tamaulipas but some were not free for long.
The escape from the jail in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital, took place about midnight last night through a 40-meter-long tunnel five meters underground.
A civilian has been reported killed during the escape by an armed inmate who fired at the man to steal his vehicle.
There was a major mobilization of police soon after the escape was discovered, leading to the arrest of 10, said a state government spokesman via Twitter at 9:00am.
Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca said in an interview that construction of the tunnel had begun several months ago.
The prison had a population of 1,300 inmates as of last December, 300 more than its capacity.
The spokesman said the facility was built in the 1940s and is no longer adequate.
A leader of the Zetas cartel was killed in the prison in February two days after he was jailed.