A handful of prisoners in Sri Lanka were killed during a riot, calling for increased coronavirus protection measures.
The clash, which left eight dead and more than 50 injured, happened on Sunday at the Mahara prison located on the outskirts of Colombo, according to CNN. It started when some of the prisoners began protesting against COVID-19 positive inmates getting transferred from other facilities to their own. Inmates set fire to the kitchen after escaping from their cells and took two guards hostage, Al-Jazeera reported.
Hundreds of additional officers were dispatched to the prison to quell the unrest.
“We can’t say it for certain, but most of the deaths and injuries appear to be due to gunshots,” Ajith Rohana, a senior police official tracking the incident, said. Rohana also noted that “The unrest situation turned into a prison riot,” with inmates trying to take over the prison with hundreds attempting to free themselves, while others “reportedly destroyed most of the property, including offices inside the prison,” according to the New York Post.
As the number of coronavirus cases in the country has climbed, inmates have recently demanded additional testing and are looking for isolation facilities to house infected prisoners.
“A majority of prisoners injured in the Mahara jail clashes were in critical condition,” said Shelton Perera, the director of the Ragama Hospital where inmates from the prison underwent treatment.
In recent weeks, more than 1,000 prisoners in five prisons have tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in at least two deaths. Approximately 50 guards have also contracted the virus, according to the Associated Press. Prisons around the country were placed in lockdown last week as the number of cases among inmates and guards continued to rise.
The South Asian country, which is home to more than 21 million people, has experienced approximately 23,500 coronavirus cases totaling 116 deaths, according to the John Hopkins University coronavirus tracker. Globally, there have been more than 62 million cases resulting in 1.46 million deaths.
