At least three inmates were killed in a shooting in a Honduran prison in the Atlantic port city of Tela on Friday, a senior military official said, Trend reports citing Reuters.
“According to our preliminary information, at least three people lost their lives,” Colonel Ramon Macoto, head of security agency FUSINA, told local television.
It was not immediately clear how the shooting began, though an unidentified police official said on television that the deaths occurred due to a dispute between warring gangs.
Honduran newspaper La Prensa said at least four people had died in the prison and that the number could rise.
The government declared a state of emergency in the prison system on Wednesday, transferring control to security forces in a bid to clamp down on a recent escalation of violence.
Fights in Honduras’ overcrowded prisons are frequent as street gangs vie for control inside the institutions.
Known as maras, the street gangs have made Honduras one of the most violent countries in the world.