3 killed in Brazil prison riot

Sao Paulo, Oct 13: Three inmates died and 14 escaped during a riot in a prison on Monday in Brazil's Teofilo Otoni town, authorities said.

According to police Lt. Col. Flavio Marcos Valerio, one of the victims were burned to death while the other two were stabbed.

The state government said in a statement that the dead prisoners were murdered by their own cellmates, Xinhua news agency reported.

The prisoners also set various objects on fire. Brazilian prisons in recent years have been questioned by human rights organisations because of problems with overcrowding, unhealthy conditions and riots.

Brazil's 1,424 prisons have a capacity of 376,669 inmates but 607,730 people are housed there, according to a report released in June by the justice ministry.

Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo has called conditions in the country's prisons "medieval".

IANS