Syrian prison seized as inmates riot, guards held hostage

"A new riot started in the central Hama prison appearing to be more serious than the previous one as the prisoners were able to detain the director of the prison, the head of police in Hama city and nine policemen," said the director of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday.

A video footage was also circulated on social media sites, purportedly showing inmates gathering in the prison’s halls demanding their immediate release.

Rami Abdel Rahman added that local authorities have responded to the mutiny by cutting water and power sources of the facility.

Earlier in the month, riot police were called to the prison after some 800 inmates took 10 guards hostage when authorities attempted to relocate them to a facility near Damascus. Government forces then encircled the prison and fired teargas inside the prison but were not able to fully end the mutiny.

Following the incident, the so-called Ajnad al-Sham militant group operating in the region said it was ready to shell government forces in the neighboring towns, the observatory reported at the time. The Takfiri group claimed the prisoners had called on them to "break the siege" by government troops.

A foreign-backed conflict started in March 2011 in Syria. United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the crisis since then.

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