26 killed in Sri Lanka prison riot

COLOMBO:

At least 26 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded during the worst prison riot in Sri Lanka in years.

Fighting between rival groups of inmates at the prison in Negombo, about 35km (22 miles) north of the capital, Colombo, started on Sunday and escalated on Monday, according to local media reports and police.

Two prisoners were killed on Sunday, when clashes between long-term convicts and those under temporary detention broke out.

In a deadlier round of fighting on Monday, 23 people were killed including six prison officers.

"The fight broke out when the prisoners were being served breakfast," Chamika Gajanayake, media spokesman for the Department of Prisons, told reporters near the prison.

Gajanayake described the cause of violence as linked to drug trafficking, but he declined to give details, saying an investigation was being launched.

Footage from Derana TV showed a heavy police presence outside the gate of the prison as a police bus carrying the injured inmates, some of them sprawled on its floor, left the premises.