Two inmates were killed and sections of a maximum security state prison were engulfed in fire and violence among prisoners when a riot broke out at the weekend and was not brought under control until early Monday.
Prisoners at Tecumseh state correctional institution, 55 miles south-east of Lincoln, Nebraska, were reported to have partially taken control of the facility during disturbances on Sunday afternoon.
When staff restored order early on Monday they found two prisoners dead in one of the housing units.
Their identities have yet to be released, and the Nebraska state patrol is currently investigating the disturbance and the two deaths.
The incident began on Sunday afternoon at about 2.30pm local time when prison guards attempted to break up a large gathering of inmates in front of a housing unit, James Foster, a spokesman for the Nebraska department of correctional services said in a statement.
Violence erupted and two staff members were assaulted and one inmate was initially shot as the disturbances spread to multiple housing units at the prison and fires broke out and property was damaged.
The authorities said on Sunday night that all staff had been accounted for and no prisoners had escaped.
But at one point as the riot continued into the evening, an inmate calling himself Jeffry Frank placed a telephone call to the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper from a manager’s office at the prison announcing that the inmates were in control.
“We’ve pretty much taken the whole prison,” Frank told the Journal Star.
He added: “The ceilings are fallen. There’s drywall on fire. There’s cameras torn down.”
Frank described looking out of the window and seeing law enforcement personnel in riot gear blocking entrances to the prison and securing the perimeter.
One inmate told the Journal Star that trouble broke out after prisoners tried to present a petition to staff and air grievances about their conditions and treatment.
