Clashes at Venezuela prison kills 50

Clashes between inmates and security guards at a prison in northwest Venezuela have left at least 50 people dead and 90 others injured.

The unrest erupted at Uribana prison in Lara state on Friday after prison authorities started to search the facility for weapons.

Meanwhile, medical officials said that the death toll is based on the number of bodies taken to hospital, adding most of the injured suffered gunshot wounds.

In a similar incident on August 19, 2012, more than 20 people were killed and 43 wounded in an outbreak of riot at Yare I Prison in south of Caracas.

Also, in June of 2011, nearly 30 people were killed in a riot that broke out at Rodeo prison.

The watchdog group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said 560 people had been killed in Venezuelan prisons in 2011. It added that the pace of the violence increased during the first half of 2012, with at least 304 inmates killed.