A riot taking place Wednesday at La Esperanza Jail, in Mariona, in the outskirts of El Salvador, left a toll of 30 dead and 28 injured, with six grenades exploding.  

According to information from San Salvador, capital of El Salvador, the Director of the Penitentiary System, Rodolfo Garay, issued a 72-hour state of emergency for the police authorities and the prosecutors to carry out the proper inquiries.

The public relations official of La Esperanza Jail, Teina Torres, told the press that the dead of 30 inmates has been confirmed, but "it is presumed there are more fatalities," as in the first hours of Wednesday afternoon the authorities had not managed yet to check the whole complex because of the insecure conditions in the jail.

Torres said "the inmates are concentrated, but we don't know what is happening."

The riot started at 9:30 local time (1530 GMT), when members of the gang Mara 18 attacked a group of inmates in the central patio of the jail located 25 kilometers from San Salvador.

The gang men launched half a dozen grenades and several of them, armed with guns, started to open fire, indiscriminately, onto the common inmates, said Torres.

Those injured have been taken to hospitals, many of them with bullet and knife wounds.

Commissioner Pedro Gonzalez, deputy director of the National Police (PNC), said that the penitentiary personnel suffered no casualties.

He said the situation "is under control as there is no more gunfire and the inmates apparently are calmed down now."

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2004)