Death toll in Ecuador prison riot rises to 116

SANAA, Sept. 30 (YPA) – Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso said Wednesday that 116 people were killed and nearly 80 injured in bloody clashes between rival gangs in an Ecuadorian prison.

President Lasso announced the new toll at a late Wednesday press conference, describing the prison slaughter as an “unfortunate event.”

On Tuesday, prisoners took part in a war armed with guns and bombs at the Guayaquil prison compound, while soldiers surrounded the facility, one of many overcrowded and understaffed prisons.

The prisoner clash is believed to be linked to Mexican drug cartels; mainly the Sinaloa and Jalisco gangs of the new generation.

Tuesday’s violence is the latest in a series of bloody prison riots  that have claimed nearly 200 lives in Ecuador so far this year.

E.M