Prison Riot
Aerial picture released by Jornal da Cidade showing smoke billowing from Bauru's Penitentiary Progression Center (CPP3), 330 km from Sao Paulo, Brazil, on January 24, 2017 after 62 inmate escaped from the semi-open detention centre after setting fire to a pavilion. At least 130 inmates were killed in prison riots in the first 20 days of 2017. Aceituno Junior/AFP/GETTY

A prison riot Monday in Brazil left nine inmates dead and at least 14 injured. Dozens of prisoners are also at large after more than 200 prisoners escaped.

The New Year’s Day riot took place at the Colonia Agroindustrial prison in Goiânia, Brazil. More than 200 prisoners escaped, but authorities have recaptured 29 and 127 have turned themselves in, leaving 77 prisoners still at large, according to the Associated Press. Prisoners escaped by breaking down part of a perimeter wall, according to the BBC.

The riot started when prisoners of one cell block invaded three other cell blocks that housed inmates with rival gang affiliations. The prisoners set mattresses and dead prisoners on fire, and according to the BBC, had obtained firearms. The prison riot took place in one part of a larger complex.

One of the dead prisoners was beheaded, according to O Estado de São Paulo.

Prison officials regained control of the facility in around two hours with the help of military police. Firefighters were also called to the prison to put out blazes caused by the riot.

Brazil has one of the largest prison populations in the world and a notoriously overcrowded prison system. The complex where the riot happened is meant to hold 122 inmates, but at times had held a population as high as 423. The entire complex holds around 900 inmates, according to officials, and on Monday only five prison officers were on duty.

Last year on New Year’s Day a prison riot at the Anisio Jobim facility in the city of Manaus left 56 prisoners dead in one of the deadliest prison riots ever in Brazil. A number of prisoners were beheaded during the gang-related violence. The facility held 2,230 prisoners at the time, but was only built to hold 590. At least 72 prisoners were taken hostage during points of the riot, with some killed and some released.

On Jan. 6, 2017, 33 prisoners were killed in another riot in the Brazilian state of Roraima. Less than two weeks later 26 prisoners were killed in another riot. At least 130 inmates were killed in the first 20 days of 2017, according to Reuters.

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