Brazil In Grip Of Successive Prison Riots

NATAL, Brazil, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jan, 2017 ) - Brazilian police Monday cleared several dozen inmates from the roof of a prison where dozens were murdered over the weekend -- the latest in a series of deadly cellblock uprisings.

The prisoners had clambered onto the roof of the Alcacuz penitentiary near the northeastern city of Natal.

An AFP video reporter filmed the inmates standing for hours with flags on the partly destroyed red tile roof before police chased them down.

Officers also fired rubber bullets at relatives who had crowded in front of the entrance to the prison, an AFP journalist saw. A total of 26 prisoners were killed in Alcacuz -- many of them beheaded, officials said -- in a violent riot that broke out Saturday night.

The cells were not closed for the night because the bars on them had been ripped off in a previous riot in 2015 and not replaced. On Sunday, police had stormed the prison and ended the uprising.