Inmates are now being treated in hospital

Members of two rival gangs at the jail started clashes with the aim of escaping during the commotion, an official said.

However some inmates were burnt to death when a fire broke out at the jail in La Ceiba, 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

Others were killed by security forces brought in to halt the rioting.

It was horrible and all we could hear was the sound of screams of pain and terror. No one knew what was going on Jose Coca Villanueva, inmate

Prison spokesman Leonel Sauceda told the agency that 86 people died in the riot - but other reports put the death toll at 60.

Mr Sauceda said it took fire fighters more than three hours to control the flames, which engulfed part of the prison building.

"It was horrible and all we could hear was the sound of screams of pain and terror. No one knew what was going on," Jose Coca Villanueva, a spokesman for the inmates, told AP news agency.

'Decapitations'

Police said four of the dead had been decapitated.

Dozens of prisoners from the El Porvenir jail have been taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

Local television images showed hospital employees covering rows of bodies with plastic bags.

Members of rival gangs at the jail started the clashes

The riot began after members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang clashed with those loyal to another gang, La 18.

The two groups are the largest and most-violent of the 450 Honduran gangs - which authorities say have around 100,000 members between the ages of 8 and 35.

Criminal gangs have caused a series of incidents at Honduran jails in the last few months - but this is the most serious one to date.