ODESSA (Ukraine), May 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A major riot involving 500 prisoners broke out at a penitentiary in the Ukrainian city of Odessa on Monday with the inmates setting fire to buildings and wounding seven staff members, officials said.
Authorities deployed several hundred National Guard troops and police to help put down the riot.
The violence broke out at the facility in the Black Sea port city as authorities planned to move several convicts to a different prison, officials said, adding that the situation was now under control.
Prisoners “attacked and wounded seven employees” and set alight a fire engine and several areas including the prison library, Ukraine’s prison service said.
Ruslan Forostyak, a regional police spokesman, said that the rioters barricaded themselves inside their living quarters.
The country’s rights ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova, said the rioters also took three medics and three guards hostage, but later said on Facebook,”they have been freed”.
“The situation is under police control right now,” she said.
A law enforcement source told local media that one of the reasons for the riot was the poor quality of food.
Established in the 1960s when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, the prison, Penal Colony No. 51, can hold up to 1,500 convicts.
The historic port of Odessa is a multi-ethnic city of just under one million people. — NNN-AGENCIES
