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Venezuelan prison clashes leave 29 inmates dead | |
(32 minutes later) | |
At least 29 inmates have died after clashes broke out at a prison inside a Venezuelan police station, authorities have said. | |
Oscar Valero, public security chief for Portuguesa state, said at least 19 police officers were wounded. | |
He said the violence broke out when police special forces (FAES) tried to stop a "massive" break-out. | |
The jail, in Acarigua, is designed to hold 250 people but currently has around 540, rights groups said. | |
Mr Valero told reporters that police officers had faced "a hail of gunfire" and that inmates detonated grenades in Friday's incident. | |
A prisoners' rights group, Una Ventana a la Libertad, said the clashes broke out when officers tried to rescue visitors who had been taken hostage by inmates on Thursday. | |
"This morning (authorities) sent the FAES and there was a clash," director Carlos Nieto told AFP news agency. | |
"The detainees had weapons, they shot at the police. Apparently they also detonated two grenades." | |
However, Humberto Prado from the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory rights group said the clashes broke out when authorities entered the block to carry out searches and remove female visitors. | |
He told Reuters news agency: "How is it that there was a confrontation between prisoners and police but there are only dead prisoners? And if the prisoners had weapons, how did those weapons get in?" | |
Venezuela has seen a number of violent prison clashes in recent years. In March 2018, 68 inmates died in a fire at a police jail. | |
In August 2017, at least 37 people were killed when a riot broke out in a prison in southern Venezuela. | In August 2017, at least 37 people were killed when a riot broke out in a prison in southern Venezuela. |