Sao Paulo (AFP): Clashes between inmates killed 15 people at a jail in Amazonas state in northern Brazil on Sunday, the regional prison authority said.
The clashes broke out around 11:00 am during visiting hours at the facility, located some 28 kilometres from the state capital Manaus.
"It was a fight between the inmates. There had never been deaths during the visits," Colonel Marcos Vinicius Almeida told a news conference.
An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the fight, Almeida said.
Almeida emphasized that authorities had reacted within minutes to the Sunday violence, preventing a potentially worse result.