Guatemalan authorities say they have regained control of a prison after a violent uprising left at least 17 prisoners dead and around 30 injured.

Journalists who saw the bodies said many had been mutilated or were badly burned.

At least one person was decapitated in the fighting, which officials blamed on gang rivalries among inmates.

Distraught relatives flocked to the jail

Hundreds of police and soldiers were sent to the Pavoncito jail, in a mountainous region some 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of the Guatemala City.

The head of Guatemala's prison system, Irma Arriaza, said inmates had now surrendered their makeshift weapons.

"But everyone is still very nervous, " she told Reuters news agency.

Poor conditions

The protest began on Monday when a group of prisoners began calling for the resignation of the prison director over poor food.

They were also unhappy about the lack of visiting time at the medium-security jail, which houses some 1,400 prisoners.

Some of the rioting prisoners are also said to have demanded that rival gang members be transferred elsewhere.

Police tried to quell the violence by repeatedly firing rounds of tear gas canisters into a crowd of about 200 prisoners hurling rocks from the roof.

Local television journalist Rolando Santis, who entered the jail with the authorities, described the scenes as "worse than a horror movie".

Prisoners held the head of one of the dead inmates like a trophy, he was quoted as saying by the French news agency, AFP.

Correspondents say Guatemala's overcrowded and inadequately resourced prisons are often the scene of violent riots.