Fourteen was killed in Machala Prison in Ecuador as a rival gang

Police say 13 prisoners and prison guard were killed and 14 other people were injured in clashes between competing gangs in Ecuador prison.

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

Police chief William Cali said that an unknown number of prisoners had escaped during the accident, but so far 13 years have been restored.

Deadly prison clashes and riots are not common in Ecuador, as gangs often target members of competing groups.

Police blames a criminal gang calling themselves Los Lupos Box for Monday’s violence. The gang did not comment on the accident.

Initial reports indicate that security personnel rushed to a prison wings after receiving an alarm call from those there.

When they arrived, the prisoners took them as hostages and killed one of the guards.

According to reports, Los Lebos Box members stormed a wing where their competitors were imprisoned and attacked.

Some prisoners managed to escape through a hole in the ocean wall caused by an explosive device they did.

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

CDR Calle said of the injured 14 police officers.

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

According to the Ecuadorian television station, the residents of Machhala have long demanded the transfer of prison, which is located in the city center.

Ecuador is struggling to contain a wave of gang violence that it has seen from one of the safest countries in Latin America into one of the most bloody.

Prison gangs played a major role in managing criminal institutions behind bars and hit alliances with Mexican drug gangs to control the flow of cocaine from the neighboring countries of the product through Ecuador ports to the United States and abroad.

Earlier this month, the United States has identified Ecuadorian gangs – Los Lubus and Los Shuniros – as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOS).

The US State Department said at that time that “the ultimate goal of the gangs is to control the methods of drug smuggling through Ecuador by exhausting and inflicting them brutally on the Ecuadorian people.”