The secretary of public safety of Yaracuy state, Oswaldo Cardozo, told local media that six people died during clashes between inmates at a prison in San Felipe.

Venezuelan media reported 17 inmates were injured in the fighting and taken to hospital.

Another inmate died at the Cabimas detention center in the northwestern state of Zulia, when a fight broke out and an inmate set fire to a cell seeking to take revenge on a fellow prisoner, a regional public safety official told news channel Globovision.

Sixteen people suffered burn injuries, said the official, Odalis Caldera.

Just last week the Venezuelan government succeeding in quelling a month-long uprising at the El Rodeo prison, where some 30 people were killed.

The episode, in which authorities accused heavily armed inmates of taking over cell blocks, holding other inmates hostage and preventing them from surrendering, was the bloodiest prison violence in the history of Venezuela, where detention facilities are notoriously violent and overcrowded.

Last year more than 300 inmates died in Venezuelan prison violence, according to non-governmental organizations.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011