A Brazilian prison riot, the second riot within a week, has left at least 33 prisoners dead, a justice said on Friday.

The riot broke out Friday morning at the Monte Cristo penitentiary in the northern state of Roraima, when inmates from one drugs gang broke the locks on their cells and invaded a wing housing prisoners from a rival gang, Roraima's Secretary of Justice Uziel Castro said.

This happened five days after another riot in Manaus, the capital of the neighboring state of Amazonas, left 56 dead as members from the local group, Familia do Norte, executed many prisoners from the rival Primer Comando da Capital (PCC)

Riot police had entered the prison and taken control of the situation, Castro said.

"There are many decapitated bodies, many limbs," he said, adding that at least 30 of the 33 dead had their heads hacked off, with some even having their hearts exposed.

The daily newspaper O Globo reported that the prison was designed to house 700 inmates but contained 1,475. Furthermore, early reports said the attack was led by the PCC against the Familia do Norte, although any links to Sunday's riot were unconfirmed.

Castro was quoted by O Globo as saying that such a link could be ruled out, since the Monte Cristo penitentiary allegedly only contained members of PCC and other prisoners unrelated to criminal gangs.

"There is no reason to think it was revenge or retaliation for what happened in Manaus. There is a rivality between them, but there is no revenge to be taken as long as there were no members of other criminal groups in this prison," said Castro. 

source: Xinhua