Negotiations between Brazilian prison authorities and prisoners who have held 196 people -- mostly visitors, including women and children -- hostage for two days, broke off without any breakthroughs being achieved, according to media reports.
The revolt began on Sunday evening in Jose Mario Alves da Silva prison in Porto Velho, the capital of the northern state of Rondonio.
Authorities said they would meet some of the prisoners' demands, including the return of gang leader Ednildo Paula Souza (or "Birrinha") to the prison in order to avoid a bloodbath.
Birrinha had been transferred to another facility a few days prior to the incident following a failed escape attempt two weeks ago, prison warden Bionor Miranda Maia said.
The prisoners also demanded dismissal of the prosecutor that ordered Birinha's transfer and better conditions.
Negotiations were set to resume yesterday morning, it was reported.
The leaders of the uprising claimed by mobile phone to local news agency Agencia Estado that they had already killed 16 fellow prisoners, but the police initially rejected the claim as a strategy to increase pressure on them.
Television cameras on Tuesday showed images of the rebels apparently displaying the bodies of two victims on the prison roof.
The Porto Velho prison was the scene of a bloody revolt in April last year when 15 prisoners were brutally tortured and murdered by their cellmates. Five of them were beheaded. Birrinha is accused of organizing the riot.
The facility was built for at most 360 inmates, but currently houses 1,050 men, according to official statistics.
Brazil's prisons are mostly antiquated and hopelessly overcrowded. Deadly revolts and abuse are the order of the day.
RSS