Fresh prison riot kills eight inmates in northwestern Brazil
At least eight inmates have been killed in a fresh prison riot in Brazil a day after violent clashes between two rival gangs in another jail left more than two dozen detainees dead.
Local police sources said that the riot broke out at a jail in the northwestern state of Rondonia on Monday.
"There are thought to be eight people dead but the bodies are burnt and the medical authorities will have to confirm" the toll, a local police spokesman said.
It has been the latest episode of violence shaking the country's overcrowded and underfunded prison system.
On Sunday, fierce clashes between two rival factions in a prison in northern Brazil left 25 inmates dead. The bloodshed occurred during visiting hours at Agricola de Monte Cristo prison in Boa Vista, the capital city of Roraima State.
Local police said clashes erupted when inmates of one wing broke into another wing.
Several of the prisoners were decapitated and burned to death by rival inmates wielding knives and bats.
Nearly 100 relatives of prisoners were briefly held hostage who were later released by police forces.
Many poorly resourced jails across Brazil are in effect run by powerful crime gangs.
Prisoner-on-prisoner killings are widespread in Brazilian jails where rival gangs fight for territory at overcrowded facilities.
According to a Ministry of Justice report, there were 622,000 people imprisoned in Brazil at the end of 2014.
Brazil has the fourth largest prison population in the world behind Russia, China and the United States.
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