25 killed in Sri Lanka prison riots as clashes rage for two days

Rival inmate groups fought for two days inside Negombo Prison, about 35 kilometers north of Colombo, leaving at least 25 people dead and more than 100 injured before security forces regained control. Most of the dead were inmates, and early tolls said at least four guards were among them, showing how quickly the violence spread beyond the prisoner population.

The unrest began on Sunday and continued into Monday as police and prison authorities struggled to contain it. Some accounts said the first confrontation came during breakfast distribution, then escalated after prisoners seized firearms and attacked prison officers. Families gathered outside the prison seeking news of relatives as the wounded were taken to Negombo Hospital, where staff received bodies of both guards and inmates.

The scale of the bloodshed has intensified scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s penal system, where overcrowding and weak management have long been identified as flashpoints. The Department of Prisons has said facilities built for around 11,000 inmates were holding nearly 40,000 prisoners, and other reporting put the system’s population above 39,000 against a capacity of about 10,000. That level of overcrowding has left prisons packed far beyond safe limits and has made separation of rival groups far harder to maintain.

The riot also renewed concern over drug-trafficking networks inside prisons and the strain on under-resourced staff, two problems that have repeatedly surfaced in coverage of Sri Lanka’s jails. Authorities requested army support to help police secure the facility, underscoring how far control had broken down. Later reports said the death toll rose to 26, including seven guards, as officials continued to clear the prison and assess the damage. The violence in Negombo now stands as a warning flare for a correctional system that has been under pressure for years and failed to prevent a deadly explosion inside one of its most sensitive institutions.