Inmates in a Rio de Janeiro prison killed eight fellow prisoners on Tuesday in what authorities said was a "settlement of differences" between members of the same criminal gang. The director of Ari Franco prison said about 30 men armed with knives made from steel bars took two guards hostage and seized cell keys to slaughter prisoners inside. "It was an internal problem between members of the same criminal faction," Major Alexandre Azevedo said. The assailants and their victims belonged to the Third Command group, one of the three main criminal groups running the drug trade in Rio's violent slums, said a spokeswoman for the state penitentiary secretariat. "I wouldn't call it a rebellion, it was a settlement of differences between inmates belonging to the Third Command," she said. Conflicts between rival gangs occur often in Brazilian jails but such mass killings within the same group are rare. The jail was built for 958 prisoners but currently houses nearly 1,200 from different criminal groups.
