Authorities at a prison in Ecuador's El Oro province said that they found at least 27 individuals on Sunday afternoon who had died from asphyxiation caused by "immediate death by hanging."

Asphyxiation occurs when the body is deprived of oxygen.

In a statement on X, Ecuador's SNAI prison authority said they were still working to "fully clarify the facts" at the jail, which is located in southwestern Ecuador near the border  with Peru. 

In a separate incident on Sunday morning, the prison was the scene of a violent riot. 

Local residents heard gunfire, explosions and cries for help coming from inside the prison's walls, news agencies report.

Four people died in the morning violence, while 33 inmates and one police officer were injured, SNAI said. 

Elite police teams entered the prison immediately and regained control after the riot broke out, the agency said.

That riot was prompted by a reorganization of the prisoners in a new maximum security facility, the statement said.

Violence and killings common in Ecuador's prisons

This is the latest prison unrest in the South American country.   

At the end of September, another armed confrontation at the prison in Machala left 13 inmates and a prison official dead.

The inmates killed in that clash came from two rival gangs, which are among the biggest drug trafficking groups in Ecuador.

Ecuador's prisons epicenter of crime

Ecuador's violent jails have become operational centers for rival drug-trafficking gangs and are now the "epicenter" of the country's organized crime, according to a 2024 report by Insight Crime think tank.

Nestled between Peru and Colombia, the world's two largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has become a major hub for the global cocaine trade. 

The tiny country of some 18 million people has become engulfed in violence in the past few years and is now one of the most dangerous places in Latin America. 

The roots of this crisis "can be traced directly to the country's prison system and the criminal networks that have evolved inside of it," Insight Crime found. 

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar