Sri Lanka police personnel arrive at the access road to the Mahara Prison Complex in the suburbs of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 30 November 2020. A riot by inmates broke out on 29 November at the sprawling at the Mahara maximum security prison, one of the largest prisons in Sri Lanka. By the morning of 30 November, prison authorities confirmed that eight inmates were killed when prison and police officials opened fire at rioters while over 40 others were injured and admitted to the hospital. Presently, according to the Commissioner-General of Prisons, the fire that broke out in some of the buildings has been extinguished and the situation almost brought under control. According to local media reports, 183 inmates of Mahara prison tested positive for COVID-19, increasing the number of COVID-19 infections at Sri Lanka's prisons by 1,091. EPA/CHAMILA KARUNARATHNE The clashes began on Sunday between convicted prisoners and those under detention at the prison in the coastal town of Negombo, about 35 km (20 miles) north of the commercial capital city of Colombo, the sources said.
The trigger for the clashes was not immediately known.
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.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by YP Rajesh)