50 prison guards and seven policemen have been taken hostage by inmates in a prison in the city of Cuenca in Ecuador.
– We are concerned about the safety of our officials, said Interior Minister Juan Zapata at a press conference in the capital Quito, according to the AFP news agency.
The incident takes place the day after hundreds of police and military personnel carried out an operation in which they searched for weapons, ammunition and explosives in one of the country’s largest prisons.
One theory is that the hostage-taking is revenge for this intervention.