Military personnel wearing anti-riot gear patrol on bikes outside the Mahara Prison complex on the outskirts of Colombo on August 2, 2026. Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP
Colombo: Sri Lanka deployed hundreds of troops and elite commandos on Sunday to contain riots at an overcrowded prison in which one inmate was killed and six others wounded, police said.
Deputy police inspector-general Sanjeewa Medawatte said the situation was under control after inmates destroyed multiple buildings on Saturday inside Mahara Prison, just outside the capital Colombo.
"We got reinforcements from the armed forces and the Special Task Force commandos to restore order and send the inmates back to their cells," Medawatte told reporters outside the prison.
A general view shows a damaged building after a riot at the Mahara Prison complex on the outskirts of Colombo on August 2, 2026. Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP
In November 2020, a riot erupted at the facility in which 11 inmates were shot and killed, and nearly 120 others wounded.
The latest unrest came almost a month after another prison riot in the same region, in which 10 guards and 21 inmates were killed.
Medawatte said inmates at Mahara Prison had completely destroyed the kitchen, the hospital, a newly built rehabilitation building and vocational training facilities.
Sri Lanka's Navy personnel arrive after a riot at the Mahara Prison complex on the outskirts of Colombo on August 2, 2026. Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP
The prison housed 4,100 inmates, about four times its capacity, an issue common across the country's jails.
Last month, the authorities announced plans to convert disused state buildings into prisons.
More than three-quarters of the inmates in Sri Lanka are remand prisoners awaiting trial, and most are held in connection with drug offences.
