Ecuador prison riot

A clash between inmates armed with guns and knives inside the Latacunga prison in central Ecuador on Monday left at least 15 people dead and 20 injured, authorities said.

Officials attributed the fighting to national and international drug trafficking groups which have turned the Andean nation's prisons into the scene of repeated massacres as the groups fight for power and drug distribution rights.

Ecuador's national penitentiary service confirmed the death toll in the Latacunga prison, located 50 miles south of the capital of Quito.