60 killed in jail riot between rival factions in Brazil

In Brazil, a prison riot has left at least 60 people dead with some bodies decapitated and burned. The riot erupted on Sunday and lasted for 17 hours in the Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Complex in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state. 

The rioters took 12 guards hostage and a still unconfirmed number of prisoners escaped. The killings occurred over a feud between rival criminal factions, the Sao Paulo-based First Capital



Command and a local Amazonian crime group Family of the North. 

The two factions are engaged in a long-term dispute over controlling prisons, drug trafficking routes, and territory in the region reeling from drug violence. Amazonian public security authorities confirmed that firearms were used during the riot and inmates exchanged gunfire with police officers. Brazil has the world's fourth-largest prison population.