Brazil state's prison revolts end

Revolts in 70 jails in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo have come to an end, after spawning four days of violence in which at least 81 people died.

Police are patrolling Sao Paulo city after gangs apparently directed by prison inmates attacked police stations and banks, and torched dozens of buses.

The state government refused a federal offer to send in 4,000 elite troops.

The unrest was triggered when hundreds of imprisoned members of a gang were sent to maximum-security prisons.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called the violence "a provocation, a show of force by organised crime".

'We're at war'

Some 200 prison guards and visitors held taken hostage over the weekend have now been released.

The uprisings that struck some 70 prisons across the state and were reported in prisons in some neighbouring states are now said to have been quelled.

Outside the jails, police made about 100 arrests, and seized a similar number of guns.

"We're at war with them, there will be more casualties, but we won't back down," said state military police chief Col Elizeu Teixeira Borges.

Police say that while most of Friday and Saturday's casualties were prison guards and police officers, most of those who died overnight from Sunday to Monday were suspected gang members.

Deserted streets

The streets of Sao Paulo, with 18 million inhabitants South America's largest city, were eerily deserted on Monday night.

Shops normally open until midnight or later were closed by nightfall, and employees were sent home early.
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