15 killed in Ecuador prison clash

Quito, October 3

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A clash between inmates armed with guns and knives inside the Latacunga prison in central Ecuador on Monday left at least 15 people dead and 20 injured, authorities said.

Officials attributed the fighting to national and international drug trafficking groups which have turned the Andean nation’s prisons into the scene of repeated massacres as the groups fight for power and drug distribution rights.

Ecuador’s national penitentiary service confirmed the death toll in the Latacunga prison, located 80 kilometres south of the capital of Quito. Agents are still searching the prison’s pavilions for bodies.

Videos in which gunfire and the screams of inmates can be heard were posted on social media.