State of emergency after prison riot

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.

President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency Wednesday, which will give the government powers that include deploying police and soldiers inside prisons. The order came a day after bloodshed at the Litoral penitentiary in Guayaquil that officials blamed on gangs linked to international drug cartels.