An inmate was stabbed to death and eight others injured when a prison riot involving 160 convicts broke out in California.
Guards were forced to fire rubber bullets and use pepper spray to quell the violence which erupted shortly before 11am at the California Men’s Colony near San Luis Obispo on Sunday.
It took less than 10 minutes to bring the fracas under control, said Lieutenant Monica Ayon, the prison spokeswoman, and inmates who suffered stab wounds were transported to a hospital for medical treatment where one died.
He was identified as Matthew Cook, who was serving a sentence of 13 years and eight months for burglary.
California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, California, where the riot broke out Sunday (file image)
The condition of the eight others was not immediately known, but Lieutenant Ayon said two of the injured were expected to be discharged and returned to the prison last night.
At least three of the wounded inmates required trauma-level care, said Ron Yukelson, a spokesman for Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, where the prisoners were taken.
Ayon said the cause of the disturbance was under investigation.
She said it was the largest riot, and the first fatal incident, she could recall in her 22 years at the facility.
The California Men’s Colony, opened in 1954, houses nearly 4,200 minimum and medium-security inmates near San Luis Obispo, about 190 miles (305km) north of Los Angeles.
Sunday’s riot occurred in a medium-security yard where some 600 inmates were present, but the disturbance involved between 160 and 170 of the prisoners, Ayon said.
The entire facility was placed under special restrictions after the incident, with virtually all inmates confined to their cells as the yard was being cleared, she said.