Firefighters said today they had removed 16 bodies from the prison, known as the Canada Rehabilitation Farm.
Deputy Interior Minister Elmer Sosa says police and soldiers intervened to restore order at the prison after gunfire broke out yesterday. It was unclear how inmates had gotten the guns.
Prison system spokesman Rudy Esquivel says the prison was designed to hold 600 inmates, but houses 3,092.
The spokesman says the fight apparently erupted between members of the Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs and fellow inmates who don't belong to the gangs.