Colombo: Two more officials from the riot-hit Negombo jail in Sri Lanka have succumbed to their injuries, bringing the overall death toll to 32, prison spokesman CI Gajanayake said Tuesday.
The number of prison officials killed has now gone up to 10, while at least 22 inmates died and another 20 remain hospitalised.
July 5 and 6, violent clashes erupted in the Negombo jail following a narcotics dispute among rival groups of inmates.
Later, it turned into a violent clash between the prisoners and jail officials. Prison officials said the inmates brutally assaulted them, while inmates said officials opened indiscriminate gunfire at them from a peephole on the main door.
Gajanayake said three more prison officials are in hospital, and one of them is very critical.
At the time of the clashes, there were 2,400 inmates, almost four times its capacity, in the prison at Negombo, a western coastal city about 35 odd kilometres north of Colombo.
Gajanayake said only 600 inmates are currently held temporarily at Negombo jail. They will also be transferred elsewhere, like the over 2,000 inmates transferred to other jails across the island, he added.
He said no visits from family members are allowed for the inmates currently housed at Negombo jail.
All inmates would be presented in court online for judicial procedure, the spokesman said.
