A devastating two-day riot at a coastal Sri Lankan prison has left at least 25 people dead, including four correctional guards, and more than 100 others injured, marking the deadliest outbreak of prison violence in the country in years. The unrest unfolded at Negombo Prison, located in a seaside town roughly 30 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, starting with violent clashes between two rival groups of inmates on Sunday.
Initial reports from authorities outline that the violence was sparked by a long-simmering dispute over an inmate exposing a large-scale illegal drug trafficking operation running inside the facility. On the first day of unrest, detainees managed to seize weapons from on-duty correctional guards, leaving two people dead and dozens more wounded by the end of Sunday. In a dramatic escalation, hundreds of male inmates and female detainees from an adjacent housing unit climbed onto the prison’s main rooftops, demanding immediate release and drawing widespread public attention to the unrest.
Fresh large-scale violence broke out on Monday when hundreds of inmates attempted to storm the prison’s main entrance gates. In response, national security forces were deployed to the facility, with multiple witnesses reporting sustained gunfire coming from inside the compound walls. In an unexpected structural complication, a section of the prison’s damaged roof collapsed during the chaos, leaving several female detainees trapped and injured, according to police statements to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Casualties were transported to two major medical facilities: Negombo District Hospital and Colombo National Hospital. Negombo Hospital Director confirmed to AFP that many of the wounded are suffering from gunshot wounds, while others have deep lacerations and severe blunt force bruising from the sustained clashes.
As authorities worked to regain full control of the facility on Monday afternoon, crowds of anxious family members gathered outside the prison’s perimeter gates. Multiple relatives told BBC Sinhala that they have received no official updates on the status of their loved ones, leaving them without information on whether their family members are alive, injured, or dead in the violence.
As of Tuesday local time, security forces are still conducting methodical clearing operations to secure all areas of the overcrowded facility. The national military has been placed on official standby after local police formally requested additional support to manage the aftermath of the riot. Prison officials confirmed that they have already begun transferring hundreds of evacuated inmates to other correctional facilities across the country to prevent further unrest.
Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice and Prisons Harshana Nanayakkara has issued a formal directive ordering a full independent investigation into the riot, with authorities required to submit a complete preliminary report on the causes and response to the violence in the coming days.
This outbreak of violence comes amid a long-documented crisis of overcrowding in Sri Lanka’s national prison system. Official data from AFP shows that as of Sunday, Sri Lanka’s correctional facilities held 41,250 inmates — four times the total maximum designed capacity of the country’s prison network. While small-scale riots and clashes are relatively common in the system’s overcrowded facilities, this is the deadliest incident of prison violence in Sri Lanka since December 2020, when 11 people were killed and 117 injured during a riot at a separate correctional facility.