Jan 7, 2007, 19:30 GMT
San Salvador - The security forces had restored calm Sunday to the El Salvador prison where 20 prisoners were killed in a riot a day earlier, a senior police official said.
Around 500 members of the notorious youth gang Mara 18 had started the trouble in Apanteos, around 70 kilometres west of the capital, San Salvador. The dead were all prisoners, who had nothing to do with the Mara gang, and were said to have been killed by the gang.
Around 2,000 prisoners are incarcerated in Apanteos prison.
El Salvador's human rights ombudswoman, Beatrice Alamanni, described the revolt as a 'terrible massacre'. Parts of the building had been destroyed and the heads and feet of mutilated prisoners had been spotted among the rubble, she said.
El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates worldwide, mainly in gang-related violence. In 2006, 3,906 people were murdered, of which 30 occurred on New Year's Eve alone.
The gangs of youths, who have also spread to Honduras and Guatemala, terrorize entire suburbs and reign supreme in those prisons where large numbers of their gang are incarcerated.
Despite a hard-fought battle to bring them under control, Central American nations have not yet managed to quell the violence.
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