CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan prison officials have shut down a prison and seized dozens of weapons when they moved inmates to other lockups.

Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela says officials found a total of 56 guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition and 12 grenades at the prison in Coro, in western Falcon state.

President Hugo Chavez has pledged to improve the prison system following repeated deadly clashes in the country's overcrowded prisons.

Varela has said that officials began moving about 600 inmates out of the prison on Oct. 14. She has said that violence broke out at the prison last week and that two people were killed and 13 injured.