THOUSANDS of skin headed gangsters are crammed inside a horror jail in El Salvador as prison murders soar to dozens a day.

Shocking pictures show the criminals lined up kneeling with their hands handcuffed behind their back as police try to end the bloodshed.

Rival gangs battling for supremacy make El Salvador’s prisons are some of the most violent it the world.

Some 16,000 of them are behind bars in central American county but there has been a spike in murders in recent days.

A state of emergency has been declared as it endures a fresh wave of gang violence, with police reporting 87 dead since Friday.

The homicides were allegedly ordered by the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs.

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The country’s President Nayib Bukele has issued an ultimatum  to the gangs telling them to stop the killing now” or other prisoners “are going to pay for it too”.

His tweet was accompanied by footage of a prison raid in which officers drag half-naked inmates out of their cells, force them to run and search them in the courtyard.

Bukele has also decreed a "maximum emergency" in all prisons since Sunday.

Incarcerated gang members have been subjected to strict measures, including permanent confinement to their cells.

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"We confiscated everything, even their sleeping mats, we also rationed their food and now they will no longer see the sun," Bukele said.

The president's decision was slammed by the former executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Paulo Abrao.

"Criminal populism: illegalities to confront illegalities. Barbarities to confront barbarities," he wrote on Twitter.

But Bukele immediately hit back, accusing the organisation of fuelling gang violence by brokering a gang truce in a bid to reduce homicides in 2012.

"You at the IACHR were the ones who sponsored the truce that only strengthened the gangs and allowed them to accumulate resources, money, weaponry,” he said.

The latest crackdown comes after one in 2020 when 22 people were killed in just one day of prison violence.

There are about 70,000 members of the MS-13, Barrio 18 and other gangs in El Salvador and their operations involve homicides, extortion and drug trafficking, according to authorities.

MS 13, is also thought to be one of the most notorious gangs in El Salvador.

Like Barrio 18, the gang originated in Los Angeles and now has a strong hold in Central America.

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