appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageTypeformConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Agence France-Presse

Clashes in a Sri Lankan jail have killed at least 23 people, including six guards, and wounded more than 100 in the worst prison riot in more than five years, officials said on Monday.
Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo Hospital, north of the capital Colombo following overnight fighting between inmates from two drug gangs, police said.
Hospital director Pushpa Gamlath said 23 bodies were brought to her state-run health facility, and more than 100 wounded inmates and guards were also admitted.
“There are some victims with gunshot injuries, some with cuts and severe bruises,” Gamlath said. “We transferred 18 of the more seriously wounded to the Colombo National hospital.”

Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara expressed “profound shock and grief”, and said authorities were working to separate the rival gangs in the prison.
“Whether they were inmates, or associated with the underworld, is not relevant to us at this moment,” Nanayakkara said in Colombo.
“Human beings have died, and there is a deep shock regarding that. This is something that should never have occurred.”
He said fighting began on Sunday evening at Negombo prison, which houses several thousand inmates.
As the reports of the fighting spread across the prison, women inmates at an adjoining section climbed on top of a roof and demanded their release on Sunday night.
Police said part of the roof collapsed, injuring some of the women.
Prison spokesman Chaminda Gajanayake said no foreign inmates were affected by the riots.
Gajanayake said some inmates attempted to break out on Monday morning, as others clashed with armed guards during breakfast.
“They made a dash to the main gate, but we were able to hold them back,” Gajanayake told reporters outside the prison, where police and commandos were deployed.
Armed police or commandos were not sent into the prison, but only guarded the perimeter.
An AFP photographer outside the prison saw prison buses transferring some inmates out of the facility. Officials confirmed they were being relocated to other prisons.

Large crowds of relatives of the inmates gathered outside the prison on Monday.
Local residents said they heard gunshots, while authorities deployed drones to monitor the situation.
“Six guards were killed when they tried to break up the rioting,” a police official said. “The situation got out of hand this morning.”
In December 2020, rioting at another prison in Sri Lanka killed 11 inmates and wounded 117 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading the government to release hundreds of inmates from overcrowded jails.
Official data showed that prisons across Sri Lanka held 41,250 inmates as of Sunday, about four times their capacity.


Sri Lanka prison riot kills 23, wounds more than 100

Japan’s detention system under scrutiny after ruling on abuse of restraints

Sri Lanka arrests son of ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa for corruption

Could India’s viral Cockroach Janta Party spark South Asia’s next youth uprising?

Sri Lanka

Prisoners board a bus to be transferred to another prison following clashes between two groups of inmates at Negombo prison in the coastal town of Negombo, Sri Lanka on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Security personnel stand guard outside Negombo prison where deadly clashes broke out on Sunday. Photo: AP

Relatives of inmates react outside Negombo prison following clashes between two groups of inmates on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Yoshitha Rajapaksa arrives at the Hulftsdorp Chief Magistrate’s Court in Colombo on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa attends the anniversary ceremony of the end of Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist war at his residence in Colombo on May 18. Photo: AFP

A police bus enters the Tokyo Detention House in Japan in 2019. Photo: AFP

Detainees are seen through a hatch at the Tokyo detention centre which is part of Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, in December 2015. Photo: Reuters

Omura Immigration Centre in Nagasaki prefecture. Human rights groups say Japan has seen numerous incidents of physical abuse or neglect of foreign detainees in recent years. Photo: Kyodo

Wishma Sandamali’s sisters Wayomi and Poornima visit the Immigration Services Agency in Tokyo in September 2021. Photo: Kyodo

8 monks killed in Thailand after boy, 11, crashes truck into pilgrims

Monks who were slightly injured from a crash rest at Phu Manorom temple in Mukdahan province, Thailand, on Thursday. Photo: Phu Manorom temple via AP

News

Asia

South Asia

The clash between inmates from two drug gangs is Sri Lanka’s worst prison riot in more than five years


The clash between inmates from two drug gangs is Sri Lanka’s worst prison riot in more than five years.


Crime

Human rights

Sri Lanka prison riot kills 23, wounds more than 100

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The clash between inmates from two drug gangs is Sri Lanka’s worst prison riot in more than five years

The clash between inmates from two drug gangs is Sri Lanka’s worst prison riot in more than five years