Seven of the dead were beheaded and six burned to death in fighting at a prison in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, the news site G1 reported, citing local police. The bloodshed began when inmates from one wing of the Agricola de Monte Cristo prison broke into another wing. Prisoners were armed with knives and wooden clubs, an inmate’s wife who was in the prison when the riot broke out told G1. Fights and riots are frequent throughout Brazil’s overcrowded prison system. In a separate incident in September, about 200 inmates rioted and escaped from the overpopulated Jardinopolis prison in Sao Paulo state.

Source: The Guardian October 17, 2016 07:36 UTC