No fewer than 24 prisoners have been confirmed dead following a riot that broke out between inmates equipped with firearms and grenades at a prison in Guayaquil, a city in Ecuador.
Gatekeepers News reports that the violence was caused by a dispute between the Los Lobos and Los Choneros prison gangs, according to officials.
Ecuador’s national bureau of prisons (SNAI) said about 42 others were also wounded in the deadly riot.
Guayas state Governor Pablo Arosemena said at a news conference on Tuesday outside the Litoral prison that order had been restored. “The presence of the state and the law must be felt,” he said.
President Guillermo Lasso retweeted an announcement from the prison bureau, saying order “has been restored at the Littoral Penitentiary after the Tuesday incidents.”
