CRI听力:Manhunt for Escaped Mexican Drug Lord

Mexican authorities are questioning 30 employees from a high security prison after the country's most notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped through a tunnel built under his cell.

It's his second jailbreak in 15 years.

Attorney General Arely Gomez says staffs at the Altiplano prison in central Mexico are being questioned as a manhunt is underway.

"We already have at the Attorney General's Office 30 people who worked at the prison, who are giving their statements so we can determine what their legal situation will be and what other elements we can get."

Guzman's cartel is believed to control most of the major crossing points for drugs at the US border with Mexico.

The kingpin slipped out of the prison through a tunnel more than 1.5 km long which led to a building site in the local town.

Guzman bribed his way out of prison during a previous escape in 2001.

He became one of the world's top crime bosses, running the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States and fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs.

The flight of Guzman seriously undermines President Enrique Pena Nieto's pledge to bring order to a country racked by years of gang violence, a sentiment shared by many local residents.

"He is taunting the government, he is laughing at them and he can do what he wants. I am not going to lie, that is what I think of him, he's got the power."

"This is bad. There could be more violence, maybe there will be more violence, but maybe many will be celebrating the escape."

The breakout happened in the State of Mexico, the home state of Pena Nieto, who took office in 2012 vowing to confront cartel violence that has killed more than 100,000 people since 2007.