Guard and 13 inmates killed in Ecuador prison fight

Police say 13 inmates and one prison guard have been killed and another 14 people injured in clashes between rival gangs in a jail in Ecuador.

People living near the prison in the southwestern city of Machala reported hearing explosions and shots in the early hours of Monday local time.

Police chief William Calle said an unknown number of prisoners had escaped during the incident but 13 have so far been recaptured.

Deadly prison clashes and riots are not uncommon in Ecuador, with gangs often targeting members of rival groups.

Police blamed members of a criminal gang calling itself Los Lobos Box for Monday's violence. The gang has not commented on the incident.

Preliminary reports suggest security personnel rushed to one of the wings of the prison after having received an alarm call from those housed there.

When they arrived, the inmates took them hostage and killed one of the guards.

According to the reports, members of Los Lobos Box then stormed into a wing where their rivals were locked up and attacked them.

Some inmates managed to escape through a hole in the perimeter wall caused by an explosive device they had set off.

It is not clear yet how the explosives were smuggled into the jail.

Among the 14 injured are two police officers, Cdr Calle said.

He added that the security forces had regained control of the prison after deploying 200 police and soldiers.

According to Ecuadorean TV station Ecuavisa, residents of Machala have long demanded that the prison, which is located in the centre of the city, be relocated.

Ecuador has been struggling to contain a wave of gang violence that has seen it transformed from one of the safest nations in Latin America to one of the deadliest.

Prison gangs have played a key role in running criminal enterprises from behind bars and have struck alliances with Mexican drug cartels to control the flow of cocaine from neighbouring producer countries through Ecuador's ports to the US and beyond.

Earlier this month, the United States designated two Ecuadorean gangs - Los Lobos and Los Choneros - as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).

The US State Department said at the time that the gangs' "ultimate goal is to control drug trafficking routes through Ecuador by terrorising and inflicting brutal violence on the Ecuadorian people".