Gang members in a women's prison in Honduras slaughtered 46 inmates by spraying them with gunfire, hacking them with machetes and then locking survivors in their cells and dousing them with flammable liquid, an official said Wednesday.

The carnage in Tuesday's riot was the worst atrocity at a women's prison in recent memory, something President Xiomara Castro called "monstrous."

Most victims were burned but there also were reports of inmates shot at the prison in Tamara, about 30 miles northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said Yuri Mora, spokesperson for Honduran national police's investigation agency. At least seven female inmates were being treated at a Tegucigalpa hospital for gunshot and knife wounds, employees there said.