STOMACH-churning video has emerged of a bloody prison battle in Brazil showing inmates 'playing football' with decapitated heads.

The bloodthirsty clip appears to show twisted prisoners playfully kicking the heads of their dead rivals across the roof of the devastated jail in Pará state.

10 Credit: focusonnews

Marauding prisoners could be seen with a body laying at their feetIt features half a dozen lags, at the Altamira Regional Recovery Center, using human body parts as balls during an apparent savage game of soccer.

The disgusting images were featured in a video obtained by the respected news organisation Reuters.

The sickening clip came to light after a rebellion at the prison - which sparked a bloody full-scale gang war which left dozens dead.

Sixteen of the 57 killed were decapitated in the bloody five-hour-long clash that ended around midday on Monday.

Many of those who perished were burned alive after being locked in their rooms by lags from rival organised crime groups who set prison wings on fire.

Today's video comes after the Sun Online told how bloodthirsty prisoners were also caught playing football with a severed head at another prison in Brazil in 2016.

10 One sickening image showed five decapitated heads dumped in the prison yard

10 Many of those who perished were burned alive after being locked in their rooms Credit: focusonnews

10 Smoke billowed above the stricken jail where inmates were burned alive Credit: EPA

The total number of victims killed in the latest prison riot is expected to rise, prison authorities say.

They confirm the riot was the result of a vicious fight between the Rio de Janeiro-based Comando Vermelho and a local criminal group known as Comando Classe.

A spokesman said: "Leaders of the (Comando Classe A) set fire to a cell belonging to one of the prison's pavilions, where members of the (Comando Vermelho) were located."

Fifteen prisoners were found dead at one wing alone, many were strangled or stabbed with sharpened toothbrushes.

State prisons chief Jarbas Vasconcelos said the fire had spread rapidly, with inmates held in old container units that had been adapted for the prison while another building is under construction.

10 Relatives begged for information about family members who are prisoners Credit: AP:Associated Press

10 A woman learns her husband is among those killed Credit: Reuters

The fire prevented police forces from entering the building for several hours, he told a news conference.

Two prison staff members were also held hostage, but eventually released.

Mr Vasconcelos said: "It was a targeted attack. The aim was to show that it was a settling of accounts between the two groups, not a protest or rebellion against the prison system."

Footage showed thick black smoke rising from the prison compound and people sitting on the roof of a building.

No members of the prison's staff were injured.

Brazil's prison are chronically overcrowded and gang violence, riots and breakout attempts are not uncommon.

The South American country has the third largest jail population in the world after the United States and China.

Inside Brazil's hellhole jails where killers are given the keys Brazil is home to some of the world's most dangerous prisons - many of which are run by the inmates themselves. The overcrowded hellholes are ruled by gangs and drug dealers and bloody murders are a daily occurrence. Prisoners are even given the keys to their cells as the guards are just too terrified to step foot in the filthy corridors. Those that hold the keys are called 'chaveiros' or keyholders and they are tasked with controlling the wings. Normally it is the deadliest killers are who are given the keys as they are the only ones who can control the other inmates. A Human Rights Watch report - The State Let Evil Take Over - told how dozens of lags are now packed into cramped cells. The country's prisons hold more than 600,000 inmates but they were only built for half that. One smaller rural prison, that houses 2,300 inmates, is guarded by just four officers. Brazil has the world’s fourth largest prison population, 28 per cent of whom were convicted on drug-related charges. And drugs are the biggest problem in Brazil's jails - fuelling the bloody riots and murders that plague the system. In the first three weeks of 2018, more than 140 prisoners were killed and since then hundreds more have perished.

The prison has a capacity of 208 but is reported to be overcrowded with 372 inmates.

Superintendent Jarbas Vasconcelos said he is launching an investigation into how prison intelligence and surveillance systems failed to anticipate the deadly rampage.

He said: "The unit is old and it houses two criminal factions (Red Command and the Class A Command).

"We had no reports from our intelligence of the possibility of an attack of this magnitude.

“We have 52 dead, including 16 beheaded. It is still very hot inside the prison, and we are working to remove bodies.”

As Brazil's incarcerated population has surged eight-fold in three decades to about 750,000 inmates, the worlds third-highest tally, its prison gangs have come to wield vast power that reaches far beyond prison walls.

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has said he wants to impose tighter controls in the country's prisons, as well as building many more of them.

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Bolsonaro's ability to curtail violence, however, may be limited as most prisons are controlled at the state level.

In January 2017, nearly 150 prisoners died during three weeks of violence in several Brazilian prisons as local gangs backed by Brazil's two largest drug factions attacked one another.

Gruesome deaths are not uncommon. In May, at least 15 inmates were found dead, choked to death or stabbed with toothbrushes in the city of Manaus.

57 dead in Brazil prison massacre as 16 are BEHEADED and dozens burned alive

10 Inmates were locked inside rooms as flames engulfed the facility Credit: Twitter

10 Prisoners could be seen on the roof of the burning prison Credit: Twitter

10 Brazil has been plagued by violence in its chronically overcrowded jails Credit: Alamy

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