Riots at a prison in Ecuador have left 24 dead and 48 injured. According to authorities, rival gang members attacked each other with firearms, knives and explosives in the prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil.
Television images showed inmates shooting at each other through prison windows. Smoke had formed in several places and shots and explosions could be heard.
It took the police and army five hours to restore calm in the prison. “The presence of the state and the law must be felt here again,” the governor said at a press conference in front of the prison.
State of emergency
This year there have been more outbreaks of violence in Ecuadorian prisons. President Guillermo Lasso therefore declared a state of emergency for the prison system of the Latin American country in July.
The bloodiest day was in February, when simultaneously in three prisons riot outbreaks. 79 detainees lost their lives.
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