Image copyright AFP Image caption Prisoners were seen on the roof of Alcacuz prison

At least 10 prisoners have been killed in fighting between rival gangs at the largest prison in the north-eastern Brazilian city of Natal, police say.

It took 14 hours for police to regain control of Alcacuz jail.

"The operation is still ongoing but the situation is now calm", a spokesperson told BBC Brasil.

This is the third major riot in Brazil this year. Nearly 100 inmates died in riots earlier this month in prisons in the states of Amazonas and Roraima.

The violence inside Alcacuz jail, in Rio Grande Do Norte state, began on Saturday afternoon, when members of one of the powerful criminal organisations present in most Brazilian jails attacked rivals in a separate wing.

"We could see the heads ripped off'' three of the dead prisoners, said Zemilton Silva, coordinator of the prison system.

Security forces managed to enter the outer area of the prison but decided to wait for daylight hours before going in on Sunday morning.

Brazil prison riots: What's the cause?

No prisoners were reported to have escaped. Police say the number of dead could go up.

Riots are not uncommon in Brazil's overcrowded jails, which are largely controlled by powerful criminal gangs.

But the scale of the violence this year has put pressure on President Michel Temer to address the problem.

After the Amazonas prison riot, the government announced plans to build five more high security jails and to create new intelligence units to try to curb the power of the gangs behind bars.</s>Fighting between rival gangs in a prison in northern Brazil has reportedly left at least 10 inmates dead, three of them beheaded, in the latest in a series of massacres in the country’s jails.

News website Folha de Sao Paulo said the afternoon riot broke out at the Alcacuz Penitentiary in Rio Grande do Norte state after criminal factions clashed and some cell blocks were invaded by rivals.

Zemilton Silva, co-ordinator of the prison system, said “we could see the heads ripped off” three inmates.

Police have surrounded the prison and blocked the exits, but were waiting until daybreak to enter because the inmates were out of their cells and armed.

The last rebellion in Alcacuz prison was in November 2015, when a tunnel was discovered in one pavilion.

The jail should house 620 inmates but has 1,083.

The recent string of Brazilian prison violence began on Jan 1 and 2, when 56 inmates were killed in the northern state of Amazonas.

Authorities said the Family of the North gang targeted members of Brazil’s most powerful criminal gang, First Command, in a clash over control of drug-trafficking routes in northern states.

Many of the dead were beheaded and dismembered.

On January 6, in the neighbouring state of Roraima, 33 prisoners were killed, many with their hearts and intestines ripped out.

Experts say First Command, known by the Portuguese acronym PCC, is exploiting overcrowding and squalid conditions in the Brazil’s jails to expand its reach across the national prison system.

The gang runs drug-trafficking operations both inside and outside prisons even though many of its leaders are in maximum security jails in Sao Paulo state.

The public prosecution said the death sentences were carried out by firing squad.

Government opponents view the executions as politically motivated, leading hundreds to take to the streets on Saturday in solidarity with the condemned men as rumours spread that their executions were imminent.

Activists blocked roads with burning debris and hurled petrol bombs in clashes with police.

One police officer was injured when several people shot at a police patrol in Bani Jamra, west of the capital Manama, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.</s>Inmates have seized control of the largest prison in the north-eastern Brazilian city of Natal. Police say at least 10 prisoners have been killed at the Alcacuz jail.

Many others are thought to have been killed in fighting between rival gangs at the prison in Rio Grande Do Norte state.

This is the third major riot in Brazil this year. Nearly 100 inmates died in riots earlier this month in prisons in the states of Amazonas and Roraima.

The violence inside Alcacuz jail began on Saturday afternoon, when members of one of the powerful criminal organisations present in most Brazilian jails attacked rivals in a separate wing.

“We could see the heads ripped off” three of the killed prisoners, said Zemilton Silva, coordinator of the prison system.

Explosions and gunshots could be heard from outside.

Major Wellington Camilo, commander of the Rio Grande do Norte state prison system, said police would wait until the morning to enter the compound.

“Many people have died. But we simply cannot get into the prison now,” he said.

No prisoners had escaped, he added.

Dozens of relatives have gathered outside, waiting for information.

Riots are not uncommon in Brazil’s overcrowded jails, which are largely controlled by powerful criminal gangs.

But the scale of the violence this year has put pressure on President Michel Temer to address the problem.

After the Amazonas prison riot, the government announced plans to build five more high security jails and to create new intelligence units to try to curb the power of the gangs behind bars. BBC News</s>SÃO PAULO—At least 26 inmates were killed in Brazil’s third prison riot this year, amid a continuing battle between drug gangs.

The security secretary for Brazil’s northeast state of Rio Grande do Norte said late Sunday that the inmates were killed over the weekend in a prison in Nisia Floresta.</s>At least three killed in new Brazil prison beheadings

Handout picture taken on January 14, 2017 of the Alcacuz Penitentiary Center near Natal, Rio Grande do Norte state, north-eastern Brazil showing three severed heads of inmates decapitated during a prison riot. — AFP picRIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 15 — At least three inmates were brutally executed and decapitated yesterday in a prison in Brazil’s north, just days after 100 detainees died in prisons during gang-related bloodletting, officials said.

The violence erupted at the Alcacuz correctional centre, the biggest in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, when members of one gang were able to storm into another where rival gang members were held.

“There are at least three inmates dead because we were able to see their heads,” state prisons manager Zemilton Silva told local media. Some local media said as many as 10 could have been killed.

The prison, just outside the state capital Natal, is built for a maximum of 620 but holds 1,100 inmates.

While real and problematic overcrowding is a fact, it is far from the only factor in the violence.

Many experts say it was part of a war between organized drug gangs in one of the world’s most important cocaine markets and trafficking routes.

Last week’s series of massacres left 100 prisoners dead — many of them active members of gangs, the authorities said.

The government has deployed 200 emergency personnel to secure the two prisons where the most blood was shed.

The largest bloodbath appeared to be an orchestrated mass killing targeting members of Brazil’s biggest gang, the First Capital Command (PCC).

It was thought to be a backlash by the PCC’s rivals for its violent expansion.

With an estimated 20,000 members, the PCC thrives even with its leader Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, known as “Marcola,” behind bars since 1999.

Investigators say that apart from its drug-trafficking activities, it also owns bus companies, minor football clubs and an illicit gasoline refinery.

Its rival Red Command is considered Brazil’s oldest gang, dating to the 1970s.

It thrived on a cocaine boom from the 1980s, expanding from bank robberies and kidnapping to control the drug trade in Rio. — AFP</s>(CNN) — At least 10 prisoners were killed Saturday in Brazil’s fifth deadly prison riot since January 1.

The latest riot happened at the Alcaçuz prison, the largest prison in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in the northeast, according to the state government.

Police and special military police forces were deployed to the prison, where the riot was still underway Saturday night, said Juliska Azevedo, a spokeswoman for the government.

The riot broke out after a fight between rival gangs PCC (First Capital Command) and Sindicato do Crime do RN (Crime Union of Rio Grande do Norte).

The São Paulo-based PCC was involved in the other fatal riots this year, authorities said.

This year’s wave of prison violence started January 1 when at least 56 prisoners were killed at the Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Complex in Manaus.

Victims were decapitated and their bodies thrown over the prison wall. Sergio Fontes, the public safety secretary for the state of Amazonas, said the riot started over control of the drug trade in prison.

As that riot was being quelled, four inmates were killed January 2 at the Prison Unit of Puraquequara in Manaus.

In the neighboring Roraima state, 33 people were killed January 6 at the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo

On January 8, four prisoners killed in the Desembargador Raimundo Vidal Pessoa public jail in Manaus.

Prisoners escaped from other prison units during the unrest.

Jose Carvalho da Silva, the interim director of the Anísio Jobim Penitentiary Complex, was removed Tuesday after the deadly riot and corruption allegations by two inmates.

Brazilian President Michel Teme and Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes recently announced the creation of a new National Security Plan to improve the prison system.

Brazil has the fourth-largest prison population in the world, with more than 622,000 people behind bars, according to its justice ministry.

Many prisons are badly overcrowded. The Alcaçuz prison has the capacity for 620 inmates but currently houses 1,083.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO — Security authorities said Sunday they have regained control of two Brazilian prisons where rioting inmates killed at least 10 people — the latest in a string of prison disturbances across the country in which more than 100 people have died within two weeks.

Prison officials in the northern state of Rio Grande do Norte said the rioting broke out Saturday at the adjacent Alcacuz and Rogerio Coutinho lockups near the city of Natal.

Officials said the death toll is likely to rise as police assess the damage caused by the disturbance, apparently a clash between rival gangs who have been fighting for control of the prisons and of drug networks outside across northern Brazil. The number of injured was not yet clear and officials did not identify the gangs involved.

State security chief Caio Cesar Bezerra said police decided to wait until dawn on Sunday before entering the prisons to prevent the situation from worsening.

"This way we guaranteed a calm intervention, a pacific intervention without resistance from the inmates," Bezerra said.

President Michel Temer expressed concern over the rebellion Sunday through his official Twitter page, saying he had been following the situation closely.

Like many prisons across the country, Alcacuz is overcrowded, with more than 1,000 inmates crammed into a facility meant for 620.

The recent outbreak of prison violence began on Jan. 1-2, when 56 inmates were killed in the northern state of Amazonas. Authorities said the Family of the North gang targeted members of Brazil's most powerful criminal gang, First Command, in a clash over control of drug-trafficking routes in northern states. Many of the dead were beheaded and dismembered. Four others died at a smaller prison.

Then on Jan. 6, in the neighboring state of Roraima, 33 prisoners were killed, many with their hearts and intestines ripped out.

Experts say First Command is exploiting overcrowding and squalid conditions in the penitentiaries to expand its reach across the national prison system.

Meanwhile, the prison chief for the southern state of Parana, Luiz Alberto Cartaxo, told Brazil's Globonews network that 21 inmates escaped from the Piraquara prison there on Sunday after using explosives to break through the prison wall. He said two other inmates died in a confrontation with police while trying to flee.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO (NYTIMES) - At least 10 inmates have been killed in a prison riot in northeastern Brazil, the latest in a wave of uprisings in the country's overcrowded prisons that have killed nearly 100 this year.

The riot began around 5pm Saturday at the State Penitentiary of Alcaçuz, near Natal in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, said Juliska Azevedo, a spokeswoman for the state government.

In a statement, the authorities said that the riot was caused by a fight between prisoners from two wings and that at least 10 had been confirmed dead.

"A group of prisoners managed to get out of their cells and invade another wing," said Caio Bezerra, the secretary of public security and social defense for Rio Grande do Norte.

Late Saturday, the police had yet to regain control of the entire prison.

Authorities were examining images circulating on social media, including one of three decapitated heads in a prison yard, Bezerra said.

"We are verifying if that happened at Alcaçuz," he said.

Killings and decapitations are common in Brazil's prisons, but violence has exploded this year. The latest uprising followed the massacre of 56 prisoners during a riot at a jail near Manaus in the Amazon state of Amazonas on New Year's Day. Four more prisoners were killed in a nearby prison the next day.

State authorities ascribed blame for the Manaus deaths to the Family of the North, an Amazon drug gang that had attacked prisoners connected to a rival gang, the São Paulo-based First Capital Command. The gangs were believed to be fighting for control of drug smuggling routes.

Four days later, 33 prisoners were killed and many were dismembered at a prison in Boa Vista in Roraima state, in the far north of Brazil. Authorities said the First Capital Command was behind the killings. Then four more prisoners were killed in a third Manaus prison after being moved from the site of the first massacre.

Azevedo said that the gang, known by its Portuguese initials, PCC, and a Rio Grande do Norte gang called the Crime Syndicate were involved in the riot Saturday.</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 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."
At least 10 people are killed in a prison riot between rival gangs in Natal, Brazil.