The grim aftermath of a prison riot in Brazil that left 26 dead is laid bare in these horrifying pictures – as grieving families claim they warned the authorities about soaring tensions.

Some of the lags were beheaded after a fight broke out between rival gangs in a prison in northern Brazil.

One family member said the authorities did not seem to be doing everything they could – even after she warned the prison director.

"The (prison) director even said he could not do anything" when told an uprising was looming, said Adriana Feliz, the sister an inmate.

"I told the director they were going to go in and kill everyone in Pavillion 4," she added. "So why didn't they do anything?"

The death toll from prison gang violence in the country's south east is now reaching 130.

The latest riot riot broke out at Alcacuz Penitentiary in Rio Grance do Norte on Saturday afternoon after criminal factions clashed and some cellblocks were invaded, Folha de Sao Paulo has reported.

"Twenty-six deaths have been verified," the state's public safety manager, Caio Bezerra, told a news conference. The authorities had earlier estimated around 30 were killed as they gathered bodies and body parts, he said.

Zemilton Silva, coordinator of the prison system, said "we could see the heads ripped off" three inmates.

Police surrounded the prison and blocked the exits and were due to wait till dawn on Sunday to enter because prisoners are out of their cells and believed to be armed.

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The prison should house 620 inmates but currently has 1,083.

The last rebellion in Alcacuz prison was in November when a tunnel was discovered.

In Brazil, the latest prison violence took place between January 1 and 2 when 56 inmates were killed in the northern state of Amazonas.

Authorities said the Family of the North gang targeted members of Brazil's most powerful criminal gang, First Command, in a clash over control of drug-trafficking routes in northern states.

Many of the dead were beheaded and dismembered.

Then on January 6, in the neighbouring state of Roraima, 33 prisoners were killed, many with their hearts and intestines ripped out.

Experts say the First Command, known by the Portuguese acronym, PCC, is exploiting overcrowding and squalid conditions in Brazil's prisons in order to expand its reach and influence across the national prison system.

The gang runs drug-trafficking operations both inside and outside prisons though many of its leaders are in maximum security prisons in Sao Paulo.

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