14 Gang Members Murdered at Prison in El Salvador

The killings occurred on Saturday, prison officials said, adding that they wanted to quash “rumors that a riot occurred.”

Guards initially found three bodies in one part of the prison and later discovered 11 more in another area, officials said.

The slain men all belonged to the Revolucionarios faction of the Barrio 18 gang.

Thirteen of the 14 slain inmates have been identified, the coroner’s office said Sunday.

The situation is “totally under control,” government spokesman Eugenio Chicas said.

“These deaths are the product of internal problems in the Barrio 18 gang,” the government spokesman said.

Mass killings have occurred at prisons in El Salvador in the past.

In 2004, 31 inmates were killed and 28 others wounded in a fight involving gang members at the prison in Mariona, a city in central El Salvador.

A fight at the prison in the northwestern city of Apanteos in 2007 left 21 regular inmates dead.