At least 52 inmates were killed, many of them beheaded, in a prison riot in northern Brazil on Monday as rival gangs fought each other, local authorities have said. </s> At least 52 prisoners have been killed - with 16 of them beheaded - in a riot in northern Brazil which saw rival gangs battle for five hours.

Two rival factions have been blamed for starting the troubles, with one group breaking into a part of the Altamira prison housing the other group, locking the room and setting fire to it.

Prison officials said 16 of the victims were beheaded while others were asphyxiated as parts of the jail were set on fire.

Video from the scene appeared to show prisoners kicking the heads of the decapitated prisoners, but the footage has not been independently verified.

Two prison officers who were taken hostage have been freed.

The violence began at around 7am and ended at around noon, officials said.

Video reported to be from the prison carried by Brazilian media showed smoke billowing from at least one prison building, while another clip appeared to show inmates walking around on the rooftops.

Authorities have not named the two rival gangs involved.

The prison in Altamira where the violence broke out has a capacity of 200 but was occupied by 311 prisoners.

The killings mirrored those of 55 inmates who died in a series of riots in May in several prisons in the neighbouring state of Amazonas.

In early 2017, more than 120 inmates died in prisons across several northern states when rival gangs clashed over control of drug-trafficking routes in the region. </s> At least 52 people have been killed in a prison riot in Brazil which saw rival gangs battle for five hours, officials say.

Gang members from one prison block invaded another part of Altamira jail in Pará state, local media reported.

Officials giving a news conference said 16 of the dead were decapitated. Other reports said part of the prison was set on fire, suffocating many.

Two prison officers who were taken hostage have since been freed.

The violence began at around 07:00 local time (10:00 GMT), and ended at around noon, officials said.

Video reported to be from the prison carried by Brazilian media showed smoke billowing from at least one prison building, while another clip appeared to show inmates walking around on the rooftops.

The two rival gangs involved have not been named by authorities.

Violence in Brazilian prisons is not uncommon. The country has the world’s third-largest prison population of some 700,000 people, and overcrowding is a widespread problem.

Clashes between rival gangs are frequent, as are riots.

In May, 40 people were killed on the same day in four different prisons in Manaus in Amazonas state – a day after 15 died in prison fights in the area. </s> At least three inmates are reported to have been beheaded and more than 30 have been killed in a riot involving different gangs at a prison in the Brazilian city of Natal.

Violence erupted at the Alcacuz Penitentiary in the north-east of the country after prisoners from one drug gang invaded a block occupied by a rival mob.

The riot continued for around 14 hours before military police entered the prison and restored order. Officials had said they were waiting until dawn before attempting to put a stop to the riot because of reports some inmates were armed.

Officials initially announced that at least ten prisoners have been killed but sources told the G1 news website the current death toll is closer to 25. Reuter's reports that the current death toll stands at 30.

As many as 100 people are feared to have died but authorities will not be able to release a final figure until they have accessed all areas of the prison.

Sources said the violence was part of an on-going battle between two drug gangs: the Crime Syndicate and First Command of the Capital.

Some of the victims are reported to have been decapitated and mutilated.

“We could see the heads ripped off'', prison co-ordinator Zemilton Silva told Folha de Sao Paulo.

As the riot continued, relatives waited outside the prison awaiting news of their loved ones. One inmate was reported to have escaped but has since been recaptured.

There have been a number of riots in Brazilian prisons in recent weeks. At least 116 prisoners have been murdered in Brazil in 2017 and that death toll is expected to rise after the latest riot.

Following the latest violence, Alexandre de Moraes, Brazil’s Justice Minister, admitted the prison system had become “a barrel of gunpowder”.

In an interview with National Journal, he said: "The system has been overcrowded for a long time, and I repeat that there is no magic step to solve a chronic problem in Brazil," he said. "We have approximately 650,000 prisoners today, with a deficit of nearly 300,000. Obviously, this ends up making the system a barrel of gunpowder." </s> At least 33 more inmates killed in northern Brazil, just days after similar prison riots killed 60.

At least 33 inmates have been killed by their rivals at a prison in northern Brazil, just days after a similar riot by warring gangs erupted at other prisons.

Friday's statement from the justice secretary said the prisoners died overnight at the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo in the northern state of Roraima.

The violence did not appear to be an all-out riot but rather a rapid early morning attack by one group of inmates against another, lasting less than an hour, a local government spokeswoman told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Most of the killings were carried out with knives, she said. No firearms have been found inside the prison so far.

"Authorities in northern Brazil are saying the situation is now under control and that no body escaped in this occasion," Al Jazeera's Daniel Schweimler, reporting from the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires, said.

A police statement said officers, including a heavily armed military-like riot squad, had been deployed to the Monte Cristo prison.

The apparent bloodshed comes just days after rebellions in other two prisons left 60 dead in the neighbouring state of Amazonas.

One institution suffered the country's worst prison bloodshed since 1992, with half of the 56 slain beheaded and several others also dismembered. In another of the riots, four prisoners died.

READ MORE: 56 killed, many beheaded, in grisly Brazil prison riot

A total of 184 inmates escaped from Amazonas prisons in the disturbances. As of Thursday afternoon, only 65 had been recaptured.

Authorities say that in Amazonas, the local Family of the North gang attacked members of Sao Paulo-based First Command, Brazil's biggest criminal organization.

The gangs are believed to be fighting for the control of prisons and drug routes in the northern part of the country, which borders Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and the Guianas.

Brazil has the fourth largest prison population behind the United States, China and Russia.

Horrific conditions and inter-gang violence are seen in many facilities, some of which are essentially run by drug gang leaders who continue to run their criminal enterprises on the outside despite being locked up.

In October, a riot at the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo, the same where disturbances were reported on Friday, left 18 dead. </s> At least 52 people have been killed in a jail in northern Brazil today in a bloody conflict between rival gangs that left 16 decapitated, an official has confirmed.

The 'rebellion' began at around 7am in the Altamira Regional Recovery Center, in the northern Pará state, where gang members from one prison block invaded the prison annex and reportedly set part of it on fire.

Sixteen of the dead were decapitated in the bloody five-hour-long clash that ended around midday (3pm GMT), an official from the Para state government's penitentiary department said.

It was the latest violence to rock the country's overpopulated and deadly prison system.

Local reports said gang members from Block A stormed Block B, which was occupied by a rival group, locked a room and set it on fire, causing many prisoners to die of asphyxiation, as per the Oservador.

Military police were called to the scene and negotiated with the inmates who had barricaded themselves in a cell block.

Brazilian media have reported that two prison officers were taken hostage in the conflict but were eventually freed following negotiations with civil police and the state's Prosecutor's Office.

Reported video of the conflict showed smoke billowing from one prison building. Another showed inmates walking on the roof of the prison, as per BBC.

The Altamira prison has a capacity of 200 inmates but was occupied by 311 prisoners, according to Brazilian News outlet G1.

Brazilian authorities have not named the two rival gangs involved in the attacks.

A fight between crime organizations would have motivated the rebellion, according to Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

However, violence in Brazilian prisons, particularly among gangs, is not uncommon.

The riot comes exactly two months after 55 people were confirmed dead in a riot in the northern Amazonas state of Brazil in May.

Monday's battle marked the second largest prison massacre in 2019. </s> At least 33 inmates were killed by their rivals at a prison in northern Brazil on Friday, days after a riot by warring gangs left dozens more dead at another prison, officials said.

The government of Roraima state said the situation at PAMC (Agricola de Monte Cristo prison) was now “under control.”

The latest violence did not appear to be an all-out riot but rather a rapid early morning attack by one group of inmates against another, lasting less than an hour, a local government spokeswoman told AFP.

Most of the killings were carried out with knives, she said. No firearms have been found inside the prison so far.

In October, 10 inmates were killed at the same prison during clashes between rival drug gangs.

The prison holds inmates from the Red Command, a powerful drug gang based in Rio de Janeiro.

It is allied with a local gang called the Family of the North.

That is the group authorities say was responsible for the grisly riot in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, where jailed gang members beheaded and mutilated 56 of their rivals in a 17-hour bloodbath Sunday and Monday.

Most of those killed in Manaus were members of a rival gang, the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command.

The latest unrest comes a day after President Michel Temer announced the federal government would spend $250 million to build at least one prison in each of Brazil’s 26 states to deal with chronic overcrowding blamed for a string of deadly riots.

Rights activists have long condemned prison conditions in Brazil, where the justice ministry says 50 percent more capacity is needed to handle an inmate population swollen by efforts to crack down on a violent and lucrative drug trade. </s> Police in Brazil say 26 people were killed in a prison in the city of Natal during shocking violence that broke out overnight.

The clashes between rival gangs was brought under control early on Sunday after police stormed the prison.

Forensic experts said most victims had been decapitated or mutilated. </s> At least 52 inmates died, 16 of whom were decapitated, in a prison riot that broke out on Monday morning in the northern Brazilian state of Para - the latest in a series of deadly clashes.

Authorities said the riot involved rival criminal gangs who took at least two penitentiary officers hostage as they battled one another.

As Brazil’s incarcerated population has surged eight-fold in three decades to around 750,000 inmates - the world’s third-highest tally - its prison gangs have come to wield vast power that reaches far beyond prison walls.

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has said he wants to impose tighter controls in the country's prisons, as well as building many more of them.

Bolsonaro's ability to curtail violence, however, may be limited as most prisons are controlled at the state level.

In January 2017, nearly 150 prisoners died during three weeks of violence across several Brazilian prisons as local gangs backed by Brazil's two largest drug factions attacked one another.

In May, at least 15 inmates were found dead, choked to death or stabbed with toothbrushes, in the city of Manaus.
At least 62 people are killed, including sixteen who were beheaded, during prison riots in Pará, Brazil, which saw rival gangs battle for five hours.