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Guayaquil, Ecuador: Police walk across the roof of a prison after rioting broke out there
Photo: Jose Sanchez / dpa
According to the media, at least 68 prisoners were killed in renewed violent clashes in a prison in Ecuador.
According to the authorities, at least 25 inmates were injured in the Guayas N1 detention center near the port city of Guayaquil.
Accordingly, the numbers could still increase.
According to "El Universo", the police seized firearms and explosives.
There was initially no official confirmation.
The Ecuadorian police wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning that there was a mission in the Guayas N1 detention center to restore order and bring the prison under control.
In Ecuador there have been repeated violent clashes in prisons over the past few months.
In September, 119 prisoners were killed in bloody gang fighting in the Guayas N1 detention center.
It was the worst massacre in the Ecuadorian penal system to date.
Almost 300 prisoners have died in the country's prisons so far this year.
In the chronically overcrowded Ecuadorian prisons, clashes occur again and again between members of gangs connected to Mexican drug cartels.
With its location between the major drug producers Colombia and Peru, Ecuador is an important hub for drug smuggling to the US and Europe.
Guayaquil in southwest Ecuador is the country's most important port city.
It is considered to be the central hub for the cocaine trade.
jso / dpa / AFP