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Peru prison riot over coronavirus fears leaves nine dead
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View of smoke arising from the Castro Castro prison during a riot in Lima on April 27, 2020. - Nine inmates were killed and dozens of guards wounded when rioting broke out at a prison in Lima after two inmates died from COVID-19, authorities in Peru said Tuesday. (AFP/-)
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ine inmates were killed and dozens of guards wounded when rioting broke out at a prison in Lima after two inmates died from COVID-19, authorities in Peru said Tuesday.
The riot broke out on Monday at the city's Castro Castro prison. By nightfall, authorities said the situation had been brought under control, giving an initial toll of three dead before gradually revising the figure upwards to nine.
"As a result of the riot, the death of nine inmates and 67 wounded was recorded," the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) said in a statement.
It said police had been called in to help guards quell the riot, the objective of which was to "facilitate a mass breakout".
Many of the dead are believed to have suffered gunshot wounds. Police said their bodies had been taken to the city's central morgue for examination.
A total of 60 prison guards were wounded in the fighting, as well as five police officers and two inmates, the INPE said.
The riot began after the death of two inmates from the coronavirus the previous day.
The prisoners burned mattresses and hung signs demanding their release from the overcrowded prison out of fears they could contract the disease.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, inmates at Lurigancho prison in the north of Lima -- the country's biggest -- were staging a protest demanding effective protection measures against COVID-19.
"We are dying. Don't let us die infected. We need medicine," a banner held up by some of the prisoners read.
The notoriously overcrowded Lurigancho prison was built to house 2,500 inmates but is currently believed to have more than 10,000.
The INPE said in a statement it would be "inflexible towards any act of indiscipline that violates the security of the prisons and exhorts the prison population to maintain a peaceful coexistence, especially as we find ourselves in a national emergency."
