16 dead in Guyana prison riot

A riot at an overcrowded maximum security prison in Guyana has left 16 inmates dead, prison authorities said.

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Georgetown - A riot at an overcrowded maximum security prison in Guyana Thursday has left 16 inmates dead, prison authorities said.

“It's a crisis situation,” Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan told AFP.

Inmates set fires at the Georgetown Prison and battled prison guards and police with sticks from broken-up beds, police said.

Besides the dead, six other people were seriously injured and were being treated for burns, the state-run Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation said.

The riot started after police and guards searched the facility, confiscating cellphones and other banned items.

Clifton Hicken, a divisional police commander, said the situation inside the prison, a concrete and wood-frame structure, was “very bad.”

The prison was built to hold 775 inmates but now houses more than 1 000.

ANA-AFP

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