Sri Lanka prison riot kills 26, with more than 100 others wounded | Sri Lanka
Clashes at a Sri Lankan prison killed 26 people, including seven guards, and injured more than 100 people in the country’s deadliest prison riot in years, authorities said.
The victims, who suffered cuts and gunshot wounds after an overnight fight between inmates from two drug gangs, were taken to Negombo hospital, north of the capital Colombo, police said on Monday.
Hospital director Pushpa Gamlath said 23 bodies were found at the state-run facility, as well as more than 100 injured inmates and guards from Negombo Prison.
“There are some victims with gunshot wounds, some with cuts and serious bruises,” Gamlath told Agence France-Presse by phone. “We transferred 18 of the seriously injured to Colombo National Hospital.”
Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara later said three more people died, taking the death toll to 26. He expressed “deep shock and sadness” and said authorities were working to separate rival gangs in the prison.
“Whether they are prisoners or their relations with the underworld does not concern us right now,” Nanayakkara told reporters.
“People died and there is deep shock about that. This was something that should never have happened.”
He said clashes began Sunday evening at the prison, which houses several thousand inmates. As news of the shooting spread, female prisoners next door went to the roof and demanded their release. Police said part of the roof collapsed and some women were injured.
The government has announced that it will form a three-member team headed by a retired high court judge to investigate the riot.
Prison spokesman Chaminda Gajanayake said no foreign prisoners had been affected by the riots, possibly referring to a 22-year-old British woman who has been held in Negombo since her arrest at the international airport in May last year with 46kg of kush, a highly potent form of cannabis.
A large crowd of prisoners’ relatives gathered outside Negombo on Monday as the air force deployed drones and helicopters to monitor the area. Local residents said they heard gunshots and that inmates were reported to have received several weapons from guards earlier in the day.
Seven guards were killed trying to break up the riot on Monday, a police official told AFP. “The situation got out of control this morning,” he said.
A riot at another prison in Sri Lanka in December 2020 killed 11 prisoners and injured 117 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting the government to release hundreds of prisoners from overcrowded prisons.
Official data showed there were 41,250 inmates in prisons across Sri Lanka as of Sunday; this number is approximately four times their capacity.
