Rioting by 1,200 Inmates Is Quelled by Brazilian Police

Police on Friday restored order to an overcrowded prison in the northern state of Ceara where 1,200 inmates rioted after six inmates were shot and killed during an escape, prison officials said.

The riot erupted in the prison built for 900 inmates after the foiled breakout attempt Thursday. Armed prisoners exchanged gunfire with police early Friday in the 15-hour standoff at the Paulo Sarasate prison near Fortaleza.

Inmates returned to their cells by Friday afternoon after several hundred heavily armed military police surrounded the complex and took control of an administrative building.

“The situation is totally back to normal. The police are still in the complex, but the prisoners are back in their cells,” a spokeswoman at the penitentiary said.

The riot occurred only two days after a riot at another Brazilian maximum security prison involving about 1,500 inmates in the southern state of Parana.

In the Parana violence, inmates took hostages and demanded better jail conditions. They said some prisoners were still in jail despite having completed their sentences.

That riot ended without bloodshed after local judicial and prison authorities agreed to meet the demands of the inmates. One prisoner suffered a heart attack in the disturbances.