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At least 41 women have been burned, shot or hacked to death with machetes in a massacre at a Honduras female prison, where violent clashes between rival gangs sparked a fire that tore through part of the facility, police said.

President Xiomara Castro said Tuesday's riot at the prison in the town of Tamara, about 30 miles (50 kilometres) northwest of Honduras' capital, was 'planned by maras (street gangs) with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.'

Castro pledged to take 'drastic measures,' but did not explain how inmates identified as members of the Barrio 18 gang were able to get guns and machetes into the prison, or move freely into an adjoining cell block and slaughter all the prisoners there.