Four dead, 17 wounded in Peru prison riot

LIMA, Feb 8 (AFP) - At least four inmates died and 17 others were wounded in an exchange of gunfire among prisoners Tuesday at Lurigancho prison, Peru's largest and most crowded, said Wilfredo Pedrazo, director of the National Penitentiary Institute.
He blamed the violence on a struggle for control among criminal gangs.
The prison east of Lima is packed with 8,200 inmates -- more than four times the number it was built to hold in the 1960s.

02/08/2005 19:54 GMT - AFP