MEXICO CITY — A riot and foiled prison break late Tuesday in the drug gang-infested state of Durango left at least 23 people dead, including 14 inmates and nine guards, after prisoners attacked their captors with rocks and then firearms.

The state-run prison in the central Mexican city of Gomez Palacio made headlines in the summer of 2010 when the warden at the time was jailed after inmates were allowed to borrow guns from guards. Those inmates also were allowed to leave the prison at night and committed killings while they were out, federal authorities alleged at the time. 

On Wednesday, Jesus Rosso, Durango’s public security secretary, said investigators were looking into how the inmates managed to get ahold of the weapons they allegedly used to kill a number of prison guards in Tuesday's incident.

“Of course those arms shouldn’t have existed [in the prison] and, above all, not in the hands of the inmates,” Rosso said.

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