AN INMATE HAS KILLED the acting governor of a prison in the city of Nuevo Laredo in Mexico, across the border from Laredo, Texas.

Warden Rebeca Nicasio Vazquez was on an inspection tour of the prison when the inmate approached her and stabbed her in the neck, according to a statement from the Attorney General’s Office of Tamaulipas state.

The inmate was restrained by guards after the attack. The warden had been inspecting the cell blocks to ensure prisoners had no hidden weapons.

Nicasio Vazquez had been in the post for about two months. Tamaulipas has been the scene of bloody turf battles between drug cartels, and many of the inmates at the state’s prisons face drug or weapons charges.

Separately, Mexican soldiers killed four presumed kidnappers during a gunfight at a ranch in north-eastern Mexico yesterday, the army said.

The Defence Department said in a statement that gunmen opened fire on troops who were investigating a tip about suspicious activity at the ranch in the town of China, near Texas, on Saturday night.

It said two adults and two children who had apparently been kidnapped were freed, and two other suspects were detained.

- AP