{"id":128897,"date":"2026-07-06T17:59:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=128897"},"modified":"2026-07-06T18:00:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:00:04","slug":"sri-lanka-prison-riot-kills-23-wounds-more-than-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128897\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka prison riot kills 23, wounds more than 100"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Web desk(National Times)- Clashes in a Sri Lankan jail killed 23 people, including six guards, and wounded more than 100 in the country\u2019s deadliest prison riot in years, officials said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo Hospital, north of the capital Colombo following overnight fighting between inmates from two drug gangs, police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hospital director Pushpa Gamlath said there were 23 bodies at the state-run facility, as well as more than 100 wounded inmates and guards from Negombo Prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are some victims with gunshot injuries, some with cuts and severe bruises,\u201d Gamlath told&nbsp;<em>AFP<\/em>&nbsp;by telephone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe transfered 18 of the more seriously wounded to the Colombo National hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara expressed \u201cprofound shock and grief\u201d, and said authorities were working to separate the rival gangs in the prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhether they were inmates, or associated with the underworld, is not relevant to us at this moment,\u201d Nanayakkara told reporters in Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHuman beings have died, and there is a deep shock regarding that. This is something that should never have occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said fighting began on Sunday evening at Negombo Prison, which houses several thousand inmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As reports of the fighting spread, women inmates in an adjoining section climbed onto a roof and demanded their release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police said part of the roof collapsed, injuring some of the women.Military personnel patrol outside the Negombo prison on the outskirts of Colombo on July 6, 2026, following overnight clashes between inmates of two drug gangs. \u2014AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2013390\/sri-lanka-prison-riot-kills-23-wounds-more-than-100#got-out-of-hand\"><\/a>\u2018Got out of hand\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prison spokesman Chaminda Gajanayake said no foreign inmates were affected by the riots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 22-year-old British woman has been held at Negombo since her arrest in May last year at the international airport with 46 kilos of kush, a highly potent form of cannabis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gajanayake said some inmates attempted to break out on Monday morning, as others clashed with armed guards during breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey made a dash to the main gate, but we were able to hold them back,\u201d Gajanayake told reporters outside the prison, where police and commandos were deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Armed police or commandos were not sent into the prison, but only guarded the perimeter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An&nbsp;<em>AFP<\/em>&nbsp;photographer outside the prison saw prison buses transferring some inmates out of the facility. Officials confirmed they were being relocated to other prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Large crowds of relatives of inmates gathered outside Negombo Prison on Monday as the air force deployed drones and a helicopter to monitor the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Local residents said they heard gunshots. The inmates had grabbed several guns from guards earlier in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSix guards were killed when they tried to break up the rioting,\u201d a police official told&nbsp;<em>AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe situation got out of hand this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In December 2020,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1542851\">rioting at another prison in Sri Lanka<\/a>&nbsp;killed 11 inmates and wounded 117 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading the government to release hundreds of inmates from overcrowded jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Official data showed that prisons across Sri Lanka held 41,250 inmates as of Sunday, about four times their capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Web desk(National Times)- Clashes in a Sri Lankan jail killed 23 people, including six guards, and wounded more than 100 in the country\u2019s deadliest prison riot in years, officials said Monday. Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo Hospital, north of the capital Colombo following overnight fighting between inmates from two drug [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sri Lanka prison riot kills 23, wounds more than 100 - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128897\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sri Lanka prison riot kills 23, wounds more than 100 - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Web desk(National Times)- Clashes in a Sri Lankan jail killed 23 people, including six guards, and wounded more than 100 in the country\u2019s deadliest prison riot in years, officials said Monday. 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