At least 68 prisoners were killed and more than two dozen injured in overnight violence at Ecuador's Penitenciaria del Litoral prison, the government said, in what officials characterize as fights among rival gangs.
The penitentiary, located in the southern city of Guayaquil, is the same prison where hundreds of inmates were killed in late September in the country's worst incident of prison violence in recent history.
The government has blamed disputes between drug trafficking gangs for control of prisons for the violence.
Dozens were gathered outside the prison on Saturday afternoon waiting for news of loved ones, who many said they had not heard from since Friday afternoon, according to Reuters.
Further disturbances in the penitentiary in the afternoon were under control by Saturday night, the government said, adding it was meeting with rights groups and the United Nations to handle the situation.
Police entered the compound and found a rifle, 10 sticks of dynamite, and two pistols, according to Bloomberg.
The riot started about 6:30 p.m. local time Friday.
On Sept. 29, more than 100 inmates were killed in the framework of a confrontation between gangs that sought to dominate one of the jail’s pavilions.