Sri Lanka’s Negombo prison riot death toll rises to 32

The death toll from the violent clashes at Sri Lanka's Negombo Prison has risen to 32 after two more prison officials succumbed to their injuries, prison spokesman CI Gajanayake said on Tuesday.

With the latest fatalities, 10 prison officials and 22 inmates have died in one of the country's deadliest prison riots in recent years. At least 20 inmates remain hospitalised, while three prison officials are still undergoing treatment, one of them in critical condition, Gajanayake said.

The violence erupted on 5 and 6 July following a dispute among rival groups of inmates over narcotics inside the overcrowded prison. The confrontation later escalated into clashes between prisoners and prison officials.

Authorities said inmates brutally assaulted prison staff during the unrest. However, inmates alleged that prison officials fired indiscriminately at them through a peephole in the prison's main gate, a claim that has added to calls for a thorough investigation into the incident.

At the time of the riot, around 2,400 inmates were lodged in the Negombo prison — nearly four times its official capacity — highlighting longstanding concerns over overcrowding in Sri Lanka's prison system.

Following the violence, more than 2,000 inmates have been transferred to prisons across the country. Gajanayake said about 600 inmates remain at Negombo on a temporary basis and will also be shifted to other facilities in due course.

Authorities have suspended family visits to inmates currently housed at the prison, while all judicial proceedings involving the prisoners are being conducted online until normalcy is restored.

Investigations into the circumstances that led to the deadly violence are continuing.

With PTI inputs