Twenty-five people were killed and about 100 injured in clashes between two groups of prisoners at a prison in Sri Lanka on Monday, two police sources and one hospital source told Reuters.
Rival drug gangs at Negombo prison killed four guards and prompted a major security response, The Daily Star reported.
Those wounded were rushed to the Negombo hospital following the overnight clashes, police said.
Pushpa Gamlath, hospital director, said there were 23 bodies at her state-run health facility, and more than 100 wounded inmates, as well as guards. Galmath told AFP “There are some victims with gunshot injuries, some with cuts and severe bruises.”
It was the country’s deadliest prison riot in more than five years, officials said today.
The fighting began yesterday evening at Negombo prison, which officials have said house several thousand inmates.
Female inmates at an adjoining section climbed on top of a roof and demanded their release after reports of the fighting spread across the prison.
Police have stated that part of the roof collapsed, injuring some of the women.
Large crowds, made up of relatives of the inmates, gathered outside the prison yesterday white the air force deployed drones and a helicopter to monitor the area.
Local residents said they heard gunshots.
Police sources said that areas within the prison were still being cleared, with officials working to account for the dead and the injured.
“Military has been requested to provide support to the police but at the moment they are on standby,” Army spokesman Brigadier Waruna Gamage told Reuters.
Visuals from Derana TV showed heavy police deployment outside the gate of the prison as a police bus carrying the injured inmates, some of them sprawled on its floor, left the premises.
A police official told AFP “Four guards were killed when they tried to break up the rioting.”
(Information from Reuters and The Daily Star)