GUNMEN FREE 25 PRISON INMATES IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY -- Heavily armed men in military and police-style
uniforms raided a western Mexican prison on Monday and freed 25
inmates, according to state officials. At least one person was killed
in a shootout.

Six of the escapees had been recaptured by the afternoon, but some of
those who remained at large ''are highly dangerous,'' said Enrique
Bautista, secretary of government for Michoacan state, in an interview
with W Radio in Mexico City.

Bautista said that about 25 uniformed men arrived in six vehicles at
3:20 a.m. at the prison in Apatzingan, 200 miles west of Mexico City,
and told guards they were conducting an inspection. When guards asked
for the visitors' credentials, the men pulled out guns.

Law enforcement agencies earlier said that about 40 people were
involved in the attack.

Bautista said those who escaped were apparently linked to drug-
trafficking gangs.

Among them was Cipriano Mendoza, who had been arrested in November
along with three other people and who was accused of kidnapping and
murder.

Bautista said officials had set up checkpoints along
highways.