VietNamNet Bridge – Some prisoners caused a disturbance at the Xuan Loc Prison in the southern province of Dong Nai on the morning of June 30. One police officer was injured in the incident.

Division 1 of the Xuan Loc Prison.

According to the investigation agency, at about 8.30am on June 30, at Division 1, while prisoners were playing football, prisoners Pham Van Tri, 36, a native of Tay Ninh, Pham Ngoc Huong, 29, from HCM City and Nguyen Van Tan, 22, a native of Binh Phuoc threw stones into the superintendents.

These prisoners then shouted and called for other prisoners to join the disturbance. Tan attacked the superintendents by a home-made baton and stone and injured Lieutenant Nguyen Van Tuan.

At the time of the incident, the warden sent representatives to the camp to solve the disturbance but the opposition group did not stop. They kept shouting and inciting other prisoners to smash the fence and flocked to the area near the gate to make pressure on officers. They forced all officers to leave the camp, leaving only Colonel Ho Phi Thang as a hostage.

After officers withdrew from the detention, they broke the doors to free 19 prisoners from the solitary and the discipline confinements.

They continued to smash the door of the canteen, taking kitchen appliances as weapons. Inside the camp, prisoners burned sedge mats and mosquito nets, locked the camp and held Colonel Thang as hostage.

With the assistance from the police forces of Dong Nai province, the disturbance was controlled. Colonel Thang safely left the camp at the end of the day.

According to Lieutenant General Cao Ngoc Oanh of the Ministry of Public Security, the ringleaders in the riot are professional ruffians who often violated the rules and discipline of the prison.

Xuan Loc Prison is one of the largest prisons in the country. There are about 1,000 prisoners at camp 1, with penalties of from 2-3 years in prison to life imprisonment.

The disturbance is under investigation.

Vinh Minh