Police brought a disturbance at the Magazine Prison in Borella under control late on Thursday night, after a group of inmates in the facility’s ‘E’ ward left the ward and behaved in a disorderly manner.
Police Media Spokesperson ASP F.U. Wootler told Hiru News the unrest had been contained. Special Task Force officers secured the area outside the prison, he said.
What happened
The trouble began at around 10.20 p.m., when inmates held in the ‘E’ ward came out of the ward, Ada Derana reported. About 40 people were involved, according to Hiru News.
The cause was reported to be a dispute over drugs.
Police, the Police Riot Control Unit and the Special Task Force were called to the scene, and security was tightened inside the prison and around its perimeter. Police said the situation had been brought under control and that security within the prison premises had been assured.
The Police Media Division confirmed to Hiru News, while the disturbance was still in progress, that an incident had been reported and that an investigation had begun.
No casualties have been reported by either outlet, and no account has yet been given of damage inside the ward.
A sensitive moment for the prison system
The incident comes while the prison service remains under scrutiny following the Negombo Prison riot in July, in which 28 inmates died. Four suspects were remanded over that unrest, and the chief jailer’s testimony was sealed by the committee investigating it.
Magazine Prison itself has been the subject of a separate custodial-death investigation, in which a jailer and prison guards were arrested over the death of an inmate. That case is unconnected to Thursday’s disturbance.
This is a developing story.
Sources: Ada Derana, Hiru News, Hiru News.
