BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Inmates at a Bogota prison clashed Thursday in a shootout that left at least five people dead and seven wounded, officials said.
The violence at La Picota federal penitentiary appeared to be a turf war between prisoners in two wards housing a mix of leftist guerrillas, common criminals and drug traffickers, prisons spokeswoman Rocio Devia said.Officials initially reported 10 prisoners were killed. But after authorities restored order, they discovered that half of the men believed to be killed were unconscious or playing dead, Devia added.
Gang fights are common in the South American country's filthy and overcrowded prisons. Guns and knives are easily smuggled past corrupt guards.
More than 300 prisoners have been killed and about 900 have escaped from Colombian prisons since 1997, according to official statistics.
Also Thursday, an explosion in a neighborhood grocery store in the western city of Cali killed four people and seriously injured six others.
Police had ventured no theory as to who planted the explosive or why.