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Sri Lanka has deployed troops to its main maximum-security prison in Colombo and two other facilities following a series of breakout attempts and riots that have left three inmates dead and 23 wounded, a government minister said on Friday.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said one inmate was killed and 10 others injured after prison guards stopped about 40 convicts from escaping Welikada Prison in Colombo on Thursday night.
The latest incident follows weeks of unrest in Sri Lankan prisons, with 10 guards and 23 inmates killed in separate riots at two other facilities outside Colombo since last month.
Authorities have linked the unrest to severe overcrowding, with the country’s prisons operating at about four times their intended capacity.
Wijepala told parliament that the situation at Welikada had been brought under control, but unrest later broke out at a prison in Kuruwita, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southeast of Colombo.
Two inmates were killed and 13 others injured during the incident, the minister said, adding that security forces had been deployed and order restored.
Another disturbance was reported at the Pallansena prison north of Colombo, where about 30 inmates climbed onto the roof and refused to return to their cells after breakfast on Friday.
Wijepala said authorities had identified a possible pattern in the incidents and suspected a coordinated conspiracy, although he provided no further details.
The government announced plans last month to convert unused state buildings into prisons to ease overcrowding, but no new facilities have yet become operational.
More than three-quarters of Sri Lanka’s prison population consists of remand inmates awaiting trial, most of them held in connection with drug-related offences.
