Brazil prisoners decapitated in Cascavel jail riot

Rioters on roof of prison with hostages - 24 August

The rioters are negotiating with officials to end the protest

Police in Brazil say rioters in a jail in the southern city of Cascavel have killed four fellow inmates and injured several others.

Two of the victims were decapitated and others were pushed from the roof of the building, two of whom died, they said.
At least 700 prisoners are reported to be involved in the uprising, which began on Sunday morning.
The prisoners are said to be unhappy about how the prison is run, as well as about food and hygiene there.
Local media showed prisoners beating men held with ropes around their necks on the roof of one of the buildings.
'Psychological torture' The rioting prisoners have their faces covered with improvised balaclavas.
The leaders of the rebellion are holding at least two prison agents hostage.
"They are using the severed head of one of the prisoners to inflict psychological torture on one of the hostages," said Jairo Ferreira, lawyer for the prison agents' union.

"There are scenes of terror inside the jail now," he told local newspaper Gazeta do Povo.
Negotiations are under way to put an end to the uprising, which has led to the destruction of most of the penitentiary, according to O Globo newspaper.
The Security Secretary of Parana State, Maria Tereza Uille Gomes, has travelled to Cascavel to take over the negotiations.
Brazil has the world's fourth largest prison population, with half a million inmates in facilities meant to hold 300,000.
Across the country, many poorly resourced jails are, in effect, run by powerful crime gangs, says the BBC's Wyre Davies in Rio de Janeiro.