More than 70 inmates have been teargassed during a riot in the maximum-security wing of Bathurst prison, 200km west of Sydney.
A spokeswoman from Corrective Services New South Wales said the riot had broken out after a fight between two inmates and prison guards in the cell block that led to the guard requiring medical treatment for head injuries.
It had begun about 1.30pm on Tuesday, she said, when an inmate “became argumentative with staff” and refused to leave the unit. While guards were restraining that inmate, another inmate stepped in and allegedly hit one of the guards repeatedly on the head.
“As the officer was being taken to the clinic for treatment, inmates in the yards became unsettled and began calling out abuse,” Corrective Services NSW said. “Inmates were secured in their cells, but a number of inmates in two yards refused to comply and chemical munitions had to be deployed.”
Prison guards in riot gear, known as the immediate action team, were called in before the riot broke out. Later police, the fire department and paramedics were also called.
The spokeswoman said the suspected ringleaders of the riot were being held in segregation.
The injured police officer was offered counselling. The Corrective Services commissioner, Peter Severin, praised guards for their “effective and judicious handling of the incident” and said it would be subject to an internal investigation.
It comes just a few hours after a 77-year-old inmate at Sydney’s Long Bay Jail, also operated by Corrective Services NSW, was charged with murdering his 71-year-old cellmate.
