MEXICO CITY, May 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Mexican authorities have detained 15 jailers in a probe into an escape of nine felons from a prison in Mexico's western state of Culiacan, the attorney general's office said Sunday.

    Police found a six-meter-long rope made of sheets near a security tower of the prison after the flight of the jailbirds on Thursday, when prison wards were reported out of the place.

    Authorities held 15 employees on suspicion of corruption linkedto the escape. They would be brought to Mexico City for further investigation.

    A nationwide manhunt is under way to net the runaway inmates.

    Prison corruption was also reported in January, when police nabbed a number of workers suspected of taking bribes from drug dealers in two prisons in central and northern Mexico. Enditem