People wait outside the Litoral Penitentiary to receive information about their relatives after clashes occurred in the prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Nov. 13, 2021.Photo:Xinhua

Prison inmates from rival gangs in Ecuador fought each other with guns, explosives and blades in a bloodbath that left at least 68 dead in the same prison where a riot in September claimed 119 lives, officials said Saturday.

Authorities said late Saturday they had regained control of the prison in Guayaquil for a second time in as many days after President Guillermo Lasso's spokesperson said fighting had again broken out earlier in the day between inmates from rival gangs tied to drug trafficking rings.

In the initial riot that began Friday night prisoners fought with "savagery," said Pablo Arosemena, governor of Guayas where the prison is located.

The riot began around 7 pm Friday when prisoners tried to enter Block 2 of the jail where their rivals were held, firing gunshots, detonating explosives and swinging machetes, and prompting police to move in.

At least 68 prisoners were killed and another 25 were wounded, according to a statement which the Ecuador Prosecutor's Office posted on Twitter.

In the second outbreak of fighting Saturday, inmates from two other blocks attacked each other, said presidential spokesperson Carlos Jijon.

He confirmed a little while later that police had pushed through to the prison's interior and that the situation was "under control."

Officials said the violence started when one of the gangs inside the prison, the Tiguerones, was left without its leader because he was released after serving part of his sentence for stealing auto parts. Other groups, sensing weakness in the Tiguerones with that man gone, went on the attack to try to crush the gang, Arosemena said.

Earlier Saturday, police officers in riot gear were seen climbing up the blood-stained prison walls, while the body of an inmate in an orange prison jumpsuit lay on the roof of the jail encircled by barbed wire.

Images posted on social networks, whose authenticity has not been confirmed by the authorities, showed a pile of bodies in a night-time prison courtyard being consumed by flames while inmates standing nearby beat the bodies with sticks.

AFP