Six Inmates Beheaded After Rival Gangs Clash In Guatemala Prison

At least seven inmates have been killed, most of them beheaded, after a fight broke out between rival gangs on Wednesday, May 19 at a prison in western Guatemala, authorities said.

Members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang and their sworn enemies, the Barrio 18, attacked each other at the Cantel prison located in Quetzaltenango.

Staff from the prosecutor’s office gained access to the prison and calculated the death toll.

Describing the situation as a "riot", the Ministry of the Interior confirmed that at least 7 inmates were killed in the incident.

"Preliminarily, the death of seven inmates is known," the ministry said in a statement.

Jorge Aguilar, a spokesman for the National Civil Police (PNC), earlier told the AFP news agency that at least six prisoners had been beheaded after the rival gangs clashed with each other.

Official sources say that some 500 police officers were deployed to restore order in the prison, following the violence on Wednesday.

The incident is being investigated, police sources confirmed, Aljazeera reported.

According to the police, one of the inmates had ordered the attack on the rival gang in retaliation for the murder of his wife, who was shot to death hours earlier by two men on motorbikes.

The inmate, who ordered the violence is serving a murder sentence, police sources said.

Both gangs involved in the riot are infamous for their involvement in drug trading and extortion rackets. They are distinguished by the tattoos on their body.

The Cantel prison was built to house five hundred inmates at a time, however, it is currently holding prisoners four times that number, police said.

Authorities said the gangs are responsible for nearly half of the 3500 yearly violent deaths in Guatemala.

In another incident, a 51-year-old murder convict on parole allegedly fled from police custody on Sunday, May 16.

The convict who was serving a life sentence in a Mumbai jail was granted 10-day parole to attend his daughter's wedding. He escaped from his ancestral home after breaking a window grill of the room he was locked in. A search operation was initiated in the nearby areas to nab the runaway convict.