At least one inmate died following a six-hour prison uprising outside of Mexico City, the prison director said yesterday.

The victim was identified as Florentino Martinez, 45, an inmate serving a sentence of more than two and a half years for assault and battery in the 1,800-inmate Barrinetos Penitentiary.

The jail is located outside the city of Tlalnepantla, 10 miles (15 kilometers) north of Mexico City in a neighboring Mexico state.

A second inmate and two guards were injured in the six-hour standoff Tuesday night involving more than 300 prisoners, said prison director Evangelina Lara Alcantara. Alcantara said Martinez died from multiple blows from fellow inmates.

Police in full riot gear fired dozens of pistol shots into the air and then used hundreds of tear gas canisters to regain control of the facility.

The prisoners were demanding better treatment from guards, larger living spaces and expanded family visiting hours.

Alcantara said the prison is vastly overcrowded: An average of eight inmates live together in each 13-foot-by-9-foot (4-meter-by-3-meter) cell.

A prison employee who spoke on customary condition of anonymity Tuesday night said authorities lost control of nearly half of the prison after demonstrating prisoners began burning mattresses, boxes of food and tables and chairs.

A drag racer who accidentally plowed into his mother's car, killing her and an elderly passenger, has been charged with their deaths.

Dwight Samples, 21, faces up to 30 years in prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted on two counts of vehicular homicide in the Dec. 19 accident that killed his mother, Diane Samples, 45, and Vivian Green, 72.

The young man surrendered Tuesday and posted $10,000 bail. Prosecutors also issued a warrant for Jerrod Abbott, 24, who allegedly was drag racing with Samples and faces identical charges.

The pair were allegedly going nearly 120 mph on Dec. 19 on a small highway northwest of Orlando when Samples smashed into his mother's slower-moving car.

The mother and her friend died at the scene, though her son didn't initially know who he'd struck. He's been in agony ever since, according to his father.

"Dwight lives in hell," Elliott Samples said. "I don't know if he'll ever get out. I can't see that anybody on the face of the earth can give him any more hurt than what he's already got."

An explosion that caused a fire in an unoccupied housing unit at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma may have been caused by a gas leak, officials said.

There were no injuries in the explosion, which occurred shortly before noon Tuesday.

Base officials were still investigating the cause yesterday although early indications pointed to a gas leak.

The unit was scheduled to be torn down to make way for new housing.

The base is home to four squadrons of AV-8B Harrier jump jets and Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1.