CARACAS – A shootout between rival gangs battling for control of a prison in central Venezuela has left at least 10 inmates dead, local media reported.

At least 10 people were killed and 15 wounded in the clash, in which gunmen wielding automatic pistols battled for more than eight hours, according to the reports.

High-level officials from the Interior Ministry visited the Tocoron prison, located 130 kilometers (78 miles) southwest of Caracas, although authorities have not yet issued an official report.

Four women, relatives of inmates housed at Tocoron who were outside the prison at the time of the clash, were reportedly wounded by gunshots.

The media reports also indicated that the gangs launched as many as eight grenades and that National Guard troops had to wait for the clashes to wane in intensity before intervening.

Fighting among rival Venezuelan prison gangs, a recurrent problem in that country, left 221 inmates dead and 449 wounded in the first half of 2010, according to the non-governmental organization Venezuelan Prison Observatory, or OVP.

Venezuela’s 29 prisons and 16 internment centers house some 40,000 inmates, far exceeding their nominal capacity of 15,000, the OVP says. EFE