Over 50 inmates dead in Brazil prison riot

Over 50 inmates have been killed in a prison riot in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Brazilian police said that the riot started on Sunday and ended early on Monday, when the prisoners surrendered their weapons and freed unharmed the last of 12 guards they had taken hostage.

A number of prisoners have reportedly escaped.

When the riot started on Sunday afternoon, six headless bodies were tossed over the perimeter fence of the Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Centre, the largest prison in the state.

A prison chaplain claimed that the riot started after a fight broke out between rival gangs, a common occurrence in the prison that often results in inmates being killed and sometimes dismembered.

The gang members behind the riots tend to hail from the violent inner-city areas of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo who have been transferred to prisons in remote states in an attempt to break up the gangs.

The Anisio Jobin prison was built to house 454 prisoners, but latest available figures dating back to October indicate that there were 585 in the jail back then.

In October, some 25 prisoners were killed in a prison in Boa Vista, in Roraima state, while seven youths were killed in a riot in Caruaru in Pernambuco state.