ByREUTERS
Updated:

Twenty-five people were killed and about 100 injured in clashes between two groups of prisoners at a prison in Sri Lanka on Monday, two police sources and one hospital source told Reuters.

The clashes began on Sunday between convicted prisoners and those held in detention at the prison in the coastal town of Negombo, about 35 km (20 miles) north of the commercial capital, Colombo, the sources said.

The trigger for the clashes was not immediately known.

Members of security forces make way for a bus carrying prisoners to be transferred to another prison following clashes between two groups of inmates at Negombo Prison, in the coastal town of Negombo, Sri Lanka, July 6, 2026.
Members of security forces make way for a bus carrying prisoners to be transferred to another prison following clashes between two groups of inmates at Negombo Prison, in the coastal town of Negombo, Sri Lanka, July 6, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/Lahiru Harshana)

Officials working to locate all dead, injured prisoners

Police sources said that areas within the prison were still being cleared, with officials working to account for the dead and the injured.

"Military has been requested to provide support to the police, but at the moment they are on standby," Sri Lankan Army Spokesman Brigadier Waruna Gamage told Reuters.

Visuals from Derana TV showed heavy police deployment outside the gate of the prison as a police bus carrying the injured inmates, some of them sprawled on its floor, left the premises.