New Delhi, Nov. 10 -- At least 31 inmates died at an Ecuador prison on Sunday afternoon after violent, armed riots broke out, authorities said.

According to a statement shared by the country's prisons authority, 27 prisoners in a jail in the port town of Machala died of asphyxiation and "immediate death by hanging", reported Reuters.

No other details were provided by the authority, also known as SNAI.

Earlier on Sunday, the prisons authority had reported four deaths in the same prison in a separate incident, which was brough under control after the deployment of a tactical unit of the police.

The prisons authority also said that the riot had been sparked by an attempted reorganization of prisoners in a new maximum security facility. ...