IANS/EFE

Veracruz (Mexico) Jan 15: Mexican authorities have denied reports that a prison was cleared for shooting of a Mel Gibson-starrer Hollywood film and said the inmates were transferred due to security reasons.

Inmates were cleared from a prison for security reasons and not to allow US actor Mel Gibson to begin shooting a film at the facility, Veracruz Governor Fidel Herrera said.

"Whether the Gibson film is made or not, I don't know, but this issue turned into a national spectacle," Herrera said.

The Veracruz government faced criticism for reportedly speeding up the removal of inmates from the Ignacio Allende prison, which housed some 1,000 prisoners, for the shooting of a Gibson's movie.

The courts were never notified of the decision, meaning that the law was violated, the state's chief judge, Reynaldo Madruga, said.

Herrera, however, said that a criminal group planned to attack the facility on Jan 9 and behead inmates whose names were on a hit list.

"The Defense Secretariat, the navy, the prosecutor's office and the Public Safety Secretariat allowed us, with the cooperation of many of the inmates who appeared on the execution list, to carry out a discreet transfer," Herrera said.

Officials decided to speed up the transfer to foil the attack on the prison, which will be replaced by a new facility currently under construction, the governor said.

Earlier, the Hollywood actor filmed his movie 'Apocalypto' in Veracruz in 2006.