52 killed as prison gangs riot & decapitate 16 rivals in Brazil - UPDATE

RT
Mon, 29 Jul 2019 17:15 UTC

More than 50 people have been killed after intense, hours-long violence broke out in a prison in Para, Brazil. Officials say 16 of the dead were decapitated as rival prison gangs fought.

Extremely graphic footage shared online purportedly filmed inside the prison shows men kicking and tossing several severed heads around as bodies lie prone nearby. Other footage shows part of the prison in flames.

Fighting broke out in the Altamira Regional Recovery Center around 7am local time when the members of one gang invaded an area occupied by a rival group, an official from the Para state government's penitentiary department said.

Inmates then set the area alight in retaliation, and two prison officers were taken hostage. The hostages were released after negotiations, and the riot lasted about five hours. Military police are still on the scene.

"We have 52 dead, including 16 beheaded. It is still very hot inside the prison, and we are working to remove bodies,"said state penitentiary official Jarbas Vasconcelos Carmo.

Brazil's prisons are notoriously overcrowded. According to official figures, the Altamira facility in Para has a capacity of 208 inmates but had 372 detainees when violence broke out Monday.

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UPDATE 30/07/2019: Spurnik further reports:

A total of 57 prisoners were killed as a result of a riot in a jail in Brazil's northern state of Para, Reuters reported. During the riot, 16 people were reportedly beheaded, while some other prisoners suffocated to death after a fire broke out in the building.
Riots at prison in Brazil leaves over 50 dead.
The incident was reportedly provoked by two crime gangs, which were in conflict with each other. The riot reportedly began at 7:00 a.m. local time (10:00 GMT) and ended at noon on Monday.

"It was a targeted act [...] The aim was to show that it was a settling of accounts between the two gangs", state prison director Jarbas Vasconcelos said in the statement, adding there was no prior intelligence that suggested an attack would take place, according to Reuters.

According to the organization, many prisoners awaiting trial are held next to those who have already been convicted, which is against human rights principles, while harsh laws on drug possession lead to people being jailed for minor offenses and thus becoming vulnerable to recruitment by gangs.