A five-hour-long clash between two rival gangs in Guayaquil prison has killed 30 inmates.
The Ecuadorian official said that almost 30 prisoners had been killed in a battle between inmates equipped with firearms and grenades at a prison in Ecuador’s largest city of Guayaquil.
The riot was the latest of the deadly prison clashes between rival drug gangs that have caused the death of almost 100 inmates this year.
Ecuador’s attorney general’s office said on Twitter that it was investigating the deaths of 29 convicts at the Litoral Penitentiary in the city of Guayaquil, including six who were beheaded.
Officials gave conflicting statements on how many inmates were wounded, with the attorney general’s office saying 42 while the national prison bureau earlier put that number at 48.
A police and military operation managed to regain control of the Guayaquil Regional prison after five hours, according to a statement from Ecuador’s prison service on Wednesday.
Guayas state Governor Pablo Arosemena said at a news conference outside the prison that order had been restored adding that the presence of the state and the law must be felt and respected.
The violence that involved gunfire, knives, and explosions were caused by a tussle between the “Los Lobos” and “Los Choneros” prison gangs.
In July, President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency in Ecuador’s prison system following several violent episodes that resulted in more than 100 inmates being killed.
Another bloodiest day occurred in February when 79 prisoners died in a simultaneous riot in three prisons in the country. On July, 22 more prisoners lost their lives in the Litoral penitentiary, while in September a penitentiary center was attacked by drones leaving no fatalities.
