7 inmates killed in US prison riot

Washington : Seven inmates were killed and 17 others sustained serious injuries in a prison riot at a maximum security jail in the US state of South Carolina, authorities said on Monday.

Clashes among inmates at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville took place at 7.15 p.m. on Sunday and order was completely restored by about 3 a.m. on Monday, the state’s Corrections Department said on its Facebook page.

No prison officers were wounded, it added. The Department described the fights as “multiple inmate-on-inmate altercations.”

Lee Correctional Institution, which opened in 1993, houses about 1,500 male inmates — some of South Carolina’s most violent and longest-serving offenders.

Two officers were stabbed here in a 2015 fight. In February, one inmate killed another.

Lee has the most number of deaths than any South Carolina prison in recent years. In 2017, four inmates were killed by a pair of prisoners in the state’s Kirkland Correctional Institution.

IANS