Guatemala: Gunmen with assault rifles burst into a Guatemalan youth prison on Monday and killed 12 gang members, hurling grenades, firing bullets and severing one victim's head, police and witnesses said.
Eleven prisoners were taken to hospital with gunshot and hand-grenade wounds following the late-night attack in which the prison's unarmed guards were overwhelmed.
The massacre was the latest in a string of lethal clashes between the rival Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 street gangs in Guatemalan prisons which started last month, following the collapse of an agreement not to fight while behind bars.
A reporter at the prison in San José Pinula near Guatemala City said that he saw a severed head left under a chair in the prison's blood-spattered basketball court.
Under Guatemalan law, guards at youth prisons are forbidden from carry guns, despite the extreme violence of the gangs.- (Reuters)