PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Guards shot and killed seven prisoners during a riot at Haiti's national penitentiary on Wednesday, police said.

Four police officers were injured in violence, which erupted when a group of inmates broke the locks on their cells and attacked the guards who opened fire on them, said Sony Marcelus, a police inspector at the penitentiary.

He was unable to give details of those killed.

The crowded penitentiary in Port-au-Prince holds 1,070 inmates, hundreds more than it was built to accommodate.

Several high-ranking members of the Lavalas Family political party of ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide are imprisoned at the run-down prison, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune.

Aristide was forced into exile after a February revolt and members of his Lavalas party have accused Haiti's interim government of arresting and jailing them without filing charges, or on trumped-up charges of corruption.

Marcelus said none of the imprisoned Lavalas officials were involved in the riot.

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