An
estimated 100 people died in a riot in a vastly overcrowded prison in western
Venezuela, the police and the national news agency Venpres reported.
Inmates
shot and stabbed each other and set fire to the prison, the National Jail of Maracaibo.
The riot reportedly ended after about four hours, said the police in Maracaibo,
325 miles (523 kilometres), west of Caracas.
A
switchboard operator at the local police station also said that 100 people had
died. Ortis Torres, a duty officer for the National Guard, which brought the
riot under control, said he estimated 150 deaths, but said bodies were still
being recovered.
Alberto
Moran, a reporter at the local newspaper Panorama, said that about 200
prisoners had been injured and that two wings of the jail had been burned.
Other estimates of the number wounded ranged from 50 to 200. It was not
immediately known whether any prison workers were among the casualties.
The
prison was built to hold 800 inmates but has about 3,000, according to Panorama.
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