Seven killed during riot at South Carolina prison

Several injured after hours of fighting at maximum-security Lee Correctional Institution

Razor wire protects a perimeter of the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina. File photograph: Sean Rayford/AP

Mon Apr 16 2018 - 15:04

Seven inmates have died and 17 others required outside medical attention after hours of fighting inside a maximum security prison in South Carolina.

Prisons spokesman Jeff Taillon announced the deaths after state police helped secure Lee Correctional Institution in the early hours of Monday.

Mr Taillon said multiple fights broke out between inmates at 7.15pm on Sunday.

He said no officers were wounded.

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The maximum-security facility in Bishopville houses about 1,500 inmates, some of South Carolina’s most violent and longest-serving offenders.

Two officers were stabbed in a 2015 fight. One inmate killed another in February this year. – Reuters