Fourteen killed in suspected gang violence at El Salvador prison

At least 14 prisoners were killed in a suspected in-fighting between two rival fractions of El Salvador's most notorious street gang taking place in a jail near the capital city of San Salvador on Saturday, the authorities said.

El Salvador's Central prison authority said the killings took place at Quezaltepeque prison, some 25 km northwest San Salvador. The in-fighting was believed to be linked to the Barrio 18 gang, the French news agency AFP quoted a spokesman for El Salvador's president as saying.

Bodies of the victims were found scattered around the prison area as relatives as well as media reporters and paramedics waited outside the prison for information on Sunday morning. ' A state of emergency was declared for 72 hours at the jail and the authorities insisted that they were in full control of the situation in the aftermath of what they described as a "purge".

Frequent gang violence has made El Salvador one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Police told reporters Wednesday that there were at least 125 murder cases in just three days in the country, a staggering toll even by El Salvador's standards.

"These are worrisome numbers, These are Salvadorans who are dying. Regardless of who is a gang member or not," National Police chief Mauricio Ramirez said.

The country had conducted a cleaning operation in April in which over 100 gang members, mostly youngsters, were arrested. Massive arrests also posed a great challenge to the authorities, as prisons in this country are already overcrowded. Endi