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 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> A prison riot triggered by gang rivalries in the state of Pará, Brazil, left at least 57 dead – including 16 beheaded – on Monday, leaving authorities to identify the fallen, relocate the culprits, and prevent a revenge attack.

Authorities believe the attackers are members of Comando Class A (CCA), an organized crime gang that has risen in prominence in northern Brazil, where the riot occurred. CCA members reportedly attacked inmates known to be members of the Red Command (CV) gang, initially locking them in a prison annex and setting it on fire. Reports indicate that, in addition to beheading, smoke inhalation appears to have killed the highest number of inmates.

The riot is the deadliest since 1992, but only the latest since May. Brazil has long struggled with prison overpopulation enabling violence, as officials have no choice but to place members of rival gangs near each other and guards are often significantly outnumbered.

Police are reportedly still working on identifying the dead and notifying family members, who have gathered outside of Pará’s Altamira Regional Recovery Center, the prison complex where the riot occurred.

Pará state borders Amazonas, the state where members of the CV and the First Capital Command (PCC), the two largest gangs in the country, engaged in violent assaults on each other throughout 2017. In early 2017, gang members rioted in a prison near the city of Manaus, Amazonas – beheading, dismembering, and cooking each other’s bodies and triggering a prison break in which at one point over 100 inmates went missing.

CV and PCC came to a peace agreement in early 2019 and launched a campaign of violence against the incoming administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, which came to power in part on a promise to sternly combat organized crime. The PCC’s profile, Brazilian news organizations noted on Tuesday, has declined since the peace agreement, giving way for gangs like the CCA to stake claims on its drug operations and the prisons the major gangs control.

The Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported on Tuesday that authorities believe the riot began at 7 a.m. local time on Monday, following the prison’s designated breakfast time. CCA members allegedly went upstairs to a prison annex known to be frequented by CV members, locked them inside, and set the annex on fire. Most of the victims are believed to have suffocated from the smoke, though at least 16 were found beheaded. Authorities have not at press time conclusively determined the timeline of the attacks, including if those beheaded died before or after those who asphyxiated.

The riot reportedly lasted about five hours. Officials have identified 46 culprits to be transferred out of the prison and away from rival gang members. Ten of the culprits are scheduled to be transferred to higher-security federal prisons, as authorities attribute the plotting and execution of the riot to them.

Brazilian authorities are offering the relatives of the dead mental health assistance and tending to families waiting patiently outside the prison for confirmation of their loved ones’ life and health. Folha de Sao Paulo noted that families were loudly sobbing outside the prison as of Monday and made it difficult for a social worker to read out the names of those confirmed dead, as the relatives of the fallen screamed in agony. The list only included 16 names, leaving many waiting outside for more news.

Folha notes that the prison in question was classified as significantly overcrowded and understaffed and lacked basic prison amenities such as classrooms, libraries, and workshops.

O Globo describes Monday’s riot as the deadliest since a 1992 riot that left 111 inmates dead and the fifth major prison riot since January 2017, when the war between the CV and the PCC broke out. On that occasion, members of the CV beheaded at least six members of the PCC on New Year’s Day, 2017, at the Anisio Jobim Prison Complex of Manaus (Compaj) and tossed their bodies over the side of the prison walls as a message to PCC members outside of prison. The inmates also triggered a massive prison break that allowed at least 184 prisoners to escape in Compaj and a nearby prison. Less than a week later, 33 inmates were killed at the Monte Cristo prison in nearby Roraima, 30 of them beheaded and many with their hearts and other vital organs torn out. The victims were members of the Família do Norte (FDN) drug gang, affiliated with the CV.

The prison gang war continued throughout the month. By the end of January, 2017, CV members were filming themselves in prison, using illicit mobile phones, roasting PCC members on makeshift grills and making “churrasco.”

The CV and PCC made their amends in January, choosing the northern state of Ceará as the base for anti-Bolsonaro activities. In January, the gang members joined a third gang, the State Guardians (GDE), and flooded Ceará, spray-painting the message of their truce on city walls and urging imprisoned gang members to cooperate: “My brothers and sisters, we humbly ask you to understand that if any leadership, CCP or CV arrives in our prisons, that the brothers welcome them, give them water, food, toothbrushes, clothes, and sheets.”

The graffiti also commanded gang members to “set off general terror, set fire to banks, post offices, police stations, and overturn bridges and overpasses,” which the criminals obliged.

The truce has not stopped inmates from staging attacks on each other, though it has largely taken the PCC out of the war. The most recent riot before Monday’s, occurring in May, featured rival members of the same gang: the FDN, which has ties to the CV. </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 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> 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 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 52 people have been killed in a jail in northern Brazil today in a bloody conflict between rival gangs that left 15 decapitated, an official has confirmed.

The 'rebellion' began at around 7am in the Altamira Regional Recovery Center, in the northern Para state where gang members from one prison block invaded another part of the jail.

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

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.

Local reports said part of the prison was set on fire, suffocating many of the prisoners.

Military officers were brought in to negotiate 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.

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 ocupied by 311 prisoners, according to Brazilian News outlet G1.

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

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. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO — An attack by members of a crime gang on rival inmates touched off a riot at a prison in the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas, killing at least 56 dead, authorities said.

Several of the victims were beheaded or dismembered in the worst bloodshed at a Brazilian prison since 1992.

Authorities said the riot, which raged from Sunday afternoon into Monday morning, grew out of a fight between two of the country's biggest crime gangs over control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil.

In a separate incident Monday evening, four inmates were killed at another Amazonas prison. Police were investigating whether there was a connection between the mass killings at Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Complex and the later ones at Unidade Prisional do Puraquequara.

Amazonas authorities initially reported that 60 people were killed at Anisio Jobim in Manaus, but the state public security secretary's office later lowered the figure to 56. Officials also said 112 inmates escaped during the riot.

There were 1,224 inmates in the prison, which was built to hold 592, the Amazonas state public security's office said. The prison is run by a private company that is paid according to the number of inmates.

Twelve prison guards were held hostage during the riot; none were injured.

"This is the biggest prison massacre in our state's history," Public Security Secretary Sergio Fontes said at a news conference. "What happened here is another chapter of the war that narcos are waging on this country, and it shows that this problem cannot be tackled only by state governments."

Fontes confirmed that many of the dead had been beheaded. He said the inmates made few demands to end the riot, which he said indicated a killing spree organized by members of a local gang, the Family of the North, against those of the First Command of the Capital, based in Sao Paulo.

Judge Luis Carlos Valois, who negotiated the end of the riot, said he saw many bodies that had been quartered.

"I never saw anything like that in my life. All those bodies, the blood," Valois wrote on Facebook.

It was the largest death toll during a Brazilian prison riot since the killing of 111 inmates by police officers in the Carandiru penitentiary in Sao Paulo in 1992. Police said they acted in self-defense then. </s> Boa Vista - Brazil was hit on Friday by its second grisly prison massacre in a week, as inmates beheaded and mutilated fellow prisoners at a northern jail, leaving 31 dead.

Pictures taken by a police officer at the scene showed bloodied, mangled bodies piled in a concrete hallway at the Monte Cristo Farm Penitentiary (PAMC) in Roraima state.

Many of the victims were beheaded, disembowelled or dismembered, officials said.

The state government said the situation was now "under control".

They lowered an earlier death toll of 33 to 31 late on Friday.

"No shots were fired. The victims were killed with sharp objects and home-made weapons," said state justice secretary Uziel Castro.

The latest unrest came days after jailed gang members killed 56 rivals in a 17-hour bloodbath on Sunday and Monday at a prison in Manaus, the capital of the neighbouring state of Amazonas.

Unlike that incident, Friday's 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 spokesperson told AFP.

Most of the killings were carried out with knives, she said.

Deadly prison riots have intensified in Brazil since a truce broke down in July between the country's two largest drug gangs, the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command (CV).

PAMC, the largest prison in the state, was also hit by deadly violence in October, when fighting between rival gangs killed 10 inmates.

At the time, the prison held 1 400 inmates - double its capacity.

Authorities said the Manaus riot was caused by a local ally of the Rio de Janeiro-based CV massacring rivals from the Sao Paulo-based PCC.

They said however that Friday's killings appeared not to have been retaliatory, said Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes.

"It is apparently not a revenge attack by the PCC" for Monday's massacre, after which members of rivals gangs were moved to separate blocks.

Speaking in Brasilia before travelling to the scene, he said PCC members were thought to have attacked prisoners who were not members of any gang.

Castro said it was thought to be "an atrocity committed against regular prisoners."

"The dreadful conditions in the prison are no secret to anyone," he added.
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.