At Least 6 Killed in Fight among Inmates at Guatemala Prison
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Officials in Guatemala said a brawl among inmates at an overcrowded prison killed six people and wounded several others.
Deputy Interior Minister Elmer Sosa says police and soldiers intervened after Sunday’s bloodshed and restored order at the prison.
Prison system spokesman Rudy Esquivel says six inmates have been confirmed as dead at the prison, known as Granja de Rehabilitacion Canada. He says the prison was designed to hold 600 inmates but houses 3,092, the Associated Press reported.
The spokesman says the fight apparently erupted between members of the Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs and fellow inmates who don’t belong to the gangs.
Special police forces and the army were sent to take control of the prison, a spokesman for Guatemala's prisons said.
Guatemala awarded Mexican construction company ICA, which has been struggling under a heavy debt burden, a multi-million dollar contract to expand the prison late last year, according to official contract data.
