At least 57 dead in Brazilian prison riot

RIO DE JANEIRO - At least 57 inmates were killed during a prison riot in northern Brazil on Monday as rival gang factions fought each other, authorities said.

Sixteen of the dead were decapitated in the second major eruption of violence to rock the country's severely overpopulated prison system in as many months.

Fighting broke out in the Altamira Regional Recovery Center at around 7 am, an official from the Para state government's penitentiary department said.

Two guards were taken hostage during the hours-long clashes, which were brought under control at around midday. The guards were eventually freed.

"It was a swift attack in a way, aimed at wiping out the rival members," Para prison official Jarbas Vasconcelos said.

"They went in, started a fire, killed and ended the attack. It was a directed, localized attack," Vasconcelos added.

Brazilian TV stations showed footage of thick black smoke rising from the prison compound and people sitting on the roof of a building.

Other images showed flames inside a building that almost reached the ceiling and people, apparently prisoners, sitting on the ground outside.

No firearms were found at the scene, but improvised knives appear to have been used in the turf war, according to a statement issued by the penitentiary department.

Some bodies had not yet been recovered due to the heat inside some of the prison structures.

The Ministry of Justice and Public Security said ringleaders of the violence would be transferred to federal jails, which are more secure.

About 311 prisoners were being held at the jail, which the department said was not overcrowded. It reportedly has a capacity for 200 inmates.

An outbreak of violence in the same prison in September 2018 left at least seven inmates dead, local media reported previously. Guards had apparently foiled an attempted prison escape.

In May this year, at least 55 prisoners were killed at several jails in the neighboring state of Amazonas, violence also blamed on an apparent drug trafficking gang dispute.

Brazil has the world's third-largest prison population, with 726,354 inmates as of June 2017, according to the latest official statistics released this month.

President Jair Bolsonaro was elected on the promise of curbing widespread violence in Brazil, including in the country's often overcrowded prisons.

Agencies - Xinhua

(China Daily 07/31/2019 page11)