Security forces are accused of carrying out executions

Dozens of deaths which occurred during a riot at a Honduran jail were caused not by inmates as originally presumed but by police, an inquiry has found.

A total of 69 people were killed when clashes broke out between regular prisoners and gang members at the overcrowded El Porvenir prison near the Caribbean port of La Ceiba in April.

They included two women visiting the jail and a baby one was carrying.

The inquiry, carried out by a government commission - the National Council for Internal Security - concluded that police had opened fire "without warning", carrying out what were for the large part "executions".

Officers also looked on while prisoners blocked the exits from one area and set it on fire, causing the deaths of gang members inside, the report said.

Overcrowding

The report concurs with the accounts of relatives who witnessed the scenes.

The majority of victims were gang members

"Some prisoners were still alive after the shooting and the police executed them. Others were able to save themselves by pretending to be dead," said Ana Machado, whose son was killed.

The incident began when inmates belonging to the country's toughest street gang, Mara 18, shot and killed two leaders of common prisoners, the report said.

"Because of their numerical disadvantage, the gang members took refuge in two cells ... and took as hostages two women who were visiting the prison."

Towels soaked with gasoline were then ignited by rival prisoners and thrown into the cells where the gang members were hiding.

Police merely stood by as this occurred, the report said.

It said tensions began in February, when the transfer to the prison of 50 gang members irritated other inmates.

Overcrowding is also believed to have heightened frictions.

The report - which will be presented to President Ricardo Maduro in the next few days - calls for an investigation into the role of the army, which came to help the prison guards.