El Gran escape: mass prison break on Texas border

Authorities have launched a massive manhunt for more than 130 inmates who made a daring daylight escape from a Mexican prison using a tunnel equipped with ropes and electric cables, ABC News reports.
More than half of those who escaped from the prison in Piedras Negras, just across the border from Eagle Rock Texas, were serving time for federal crimes, including drug trafficking. Though drug gangs are often tied to prison escapes in Mexico, authorities have not yet linked the escape to a specific gang.
According to Mexican media reports, the escape occurred just after 2 p.m. Monday and took 15 minutes. The inmates overpowered guards in the prison's watchtowers, escaped through the tunnel and cut through a chain link fence into a vacant lot. No alert was sounded until an hour after the inmates, who represented a fifth of the prison's total population, had escaped.
More than 5,000 police and soldiers are now searching for the escapees.