Guatemala prison clashes death toll hits 16
At least sixteen people have died in clashes between rival gangs at a maximum security prison in Guatemala.
Security forces are still working to gain control of the Granja Penal Canada facility, Deputy Interior Minister Elmer Sosa said on Monday.
Special forces of the police and army were deployed to the facility on Sunday to regain control of the prison.
The fight broke out earlier in the day between members of two rival criminal gangs - "Mara 18" and "Mara Salvatrucha" - as well as other prisoners.
Some of the prisoners at the overcrowded facility which holds more than 3,000 inmates were reportedly armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
Relatives of prisoners mourned outside the jail as dead bodies of killed inmates were carried out in black plastic bags bound for the morgue.
"All the dead are prisoners, we have ruled out any guards among the dead," Rudy Esquivel, the spokesman for Guatemala's prison system, said on Monday. "The cause was a clash between them, we are still investigating."
The exact number of prisoners injured in the violence is yet unknown.
The maximum security prison, which was built to house only 600 prisoners, is located in the city of Escuintla, about 75 kilometers (47 miles) south of the capital, Guatemala City.
The clash is the latest in a string of deadly prison riots in the Central American country in recent years.
In 2005, prison riots at Guatemala's Granja Pino Canada, El Hoyon and Pavon prisons killed some 35 people.
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