Ecuador declares prison emergency after 116 killed

QUITO, ECUADOR >> Ecuador’s president has declared a state of emergency in the prison system following a battle among gang members in a coastal lockup that killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what authorities say was the worst prison bloodbath ever in the country. Officials said at least five of the dead were found to have been beheaded.

Dozens of police and military vehicles, as well as ambulances, entered the prison eompound on Thursday. Helicopters flew over the area.

There could be more bodies or seriously injured people in the prison, said Col. Tannya Varela, the national police commander.

“It is regrettable that the prisons are being turned into territories for power disputes by criminal gangs,” President Guillermo Lasso said.