13 Prisoners Killed, 3 Injured in Fighting
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Prisoners rampaging through a cellblock in midwestern Brazil left 13 inmates dead and three others wounded Saturday, a prison guard said.
The uprising began after breakfast in one of the three cellblocks at the Mata Grande Penitentiary in Rondonopolis, about 450 miles west of the capital, Brasilia, guard Tome Lima said by telephone.
In a dispute that apparently was for control of the drug trade in the prison, about 17 prisoners armed with crude knives overpowered four guards and forced them to open an adjacent cellblock controlled by a rival gang, Lima said.
The rampaging inmates roamed through the cellblock, he said, killing their enemies.
After three hours, police stormed the prison and regained control.
The uprising was the fourth since the prison was inaugurated in November. Unlike most Brazilian prisons, overcrowding is not a problem at Mata Grande, which holds only about half its capacity of 700 inmates.
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