At least 18 dead after Brazilian prison mutinies

At least 18 inmates died in two separate Brazilian penitentiaries during clashes between rival gangs, and authorities were investigating a possible connection between the uprisings, police said on Monday.

At least 10 of the prisoners died in a mutiny in the northern state of Roraima, while eight others perished in a similar riot about 1 300km away at a penitentiary to the south in the state of Rondonia.

Roraima's justice secretary Uziel Castro said that at least seven of the bodies were piled up and burned after the Sunday prison mutiny in that state. At least two other bodies were found in a different section of the Monte Cristo prison, but it wasn't immediately clear where the 10th was found. Castro says at least three of the bodies were beheaded and efforts to identify them had been slow.