March 12, 2015
TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) - Three inmates were killed, including one who was shot in the head, during a riot at an overcrowded Honduran prison Wednesday that left another 32 people injured, authorities said.
About 400 officers and military troops sent to the San Pedro Sula prison to restore order were met by gunfire from within the facility and pelted with stones and other projectiles, said a spokesman for the Honduras National Police.
Once order was finally restored, police said they confiscated assault rifles, automatic weapons ammunition and other munitions from inside the sprawling prison.
Bloodied and incapacitated inmates could be seen being taken out of the jail by emergency crews following the riot and clash with police.
The injured were eight police and 24 inmates, according to National Security Force spokesman Jose Coello.
The badly overcrowded San Pedro Sula prison, located some 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of the capital city Tegucigalpa, was built for 1,300 inmates, but houses 2,900.
Officials said one of the dead inmates died from a bullet wound to the head, but provided no immediate cause of death for the others.
President Juan Orlando Hernandez has ordered a crackdown against criminality in Honduras's prisons, where violence and gang activity is rampant.
He also ordered the removal to other facilities of about 20 of the most hardened criminals at San Pedro Sula prison, which officials said appeared to have precipitated Wednesday's uprising.
