25/07/2013 10:04
Deadly prison riot in Ivory Coast
At least three prisoners have been killed during a riot in the main prison in Ivory Coast's biggest city of Abidjan, BBC reported, citing officials.
One inmate told the BBC the riot began after guards tried to move a prisoner they suspected of planning to escape.
The BBC's Tamasin Ford says the prison is now quiet.
The jail holds some of Ivory Coast's most violent prisoners as well as some supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo.
The prisoner, who did not want to be named, told BBC Afrique that cells had been set on fire before guards were sent in to restore order.
One guard was severely beaten and "left for dead" after being overpowered, before reinforcements used live bullets, he said.
"It was a mutiny at the prison that was quickly put down in order to keep it from getting out of control. There were three deaths," Lieutenant Moussa Doumbia, head of the unit sent to put down the uprising, told Reuters news agency.
Soldiers with rocket-propelled grenades were deployed outside the prison.