Clashes between rival drug gangs claimed at least 10 lives in the second deadly riot in an Ecuadoran prison in days, police in the violence-wracked country said Thursday.

Bloody fighting broke out in a prison in the troubled coastal city of Esmeraldas, near the Colombian border, where police said they found 10 dead prisoners in two cell blocks — adding to about 500 inmates massacred in the country since 2021.

Images shared on social media and verified by Agence France-Presse showed dead men sprawled on the ground with bare, blood-stained torsos, at least two of them decapitated.

Worried family members gathered outside the prison for news of their loved ones.

Police and military officers stand guard in front of a prison in Esmeraldas, Ecuador on September 25, 2025. ANTONY QUINTERO/AF

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