GUATEMALA CITY, May 2 (Reuters) - Angry Guatemalan prisoners decapitated a senior prison official during a riot, emergency officials said on Friday.

Jorge Augusto Mendoza, deputy director of the prison, was beheaded in the riot in Chimaltenango prison on Thursday night, said Mario Cruz, an emergency services spokesman. The dead man's body was missing an arm, Cruz said.

"The deputy director was killed and the director of the prison and three guards were injured," prison system spokesman Nery Morales said.

Morales said the riot began after two women were caught trying to smuggle drugs into the prison during visiting hours.

But inmates say the riot began as a reaction to guard brutality, he said.

Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in Latin America and thousands of people are killed in common crime each year. The penitentiary system is corrupt and crumbling with youth street gangs and drug traffickers often controlling street crime from within prisons. (Reporting by Herbert Hernandez; Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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