Scores of hostages released from gang-controlled prisons, Ecuador government claims

Police officers stand guard outside the Turi prison in Cuenca, Ecuador. It is unclear how many captives had been rescued from the country’s notoriously overcrowded jails. Photograph: Fernando Machado/AFP/Getty Images

Scores of hostages have been released from Ecuador’s gang-controlled prisons, the government has claimed, nearly a week after the South American country was shaken by a massive wave of violence.

“All of the hostages have been freed,” the Ecuadorian presidency announced on social media on Saturday night.