MEXICO CITY — Complicity by guards or other officials is suspected in the escape of 132 inmates from a prison in the northern border state of Coahuila, authorities said Tuesday.

The inmates apparently fled through a 21-foot tunnel carved underneath a carpentry workshop in the prison at Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. They were noticed missing sometime Monday afternoon.

Authorities on Tuesday said they had recaptured three female inmates. Four men also thought to be escapees were killed in a shootout with troops scouring the region in search of the fugitives, they said.

It was the second-largest prison break in the six-year administration of President Felipe Calderon.