DENPASAR - Indonesia said on Thursday it would evacuate 60 foreigners as well as female prisoners from the Kerobokan prison in Denpasar, Bali, Agence France Presse reports. The jail is currently under the control of rioting inmates. Fighting broke out late on Tuesday when inmates attacked a guard post near the entrance, forcing officers to flee. Police said they shot two prisoners in the legs when they confronted a mob wielding sticks and throwing bricks.
On Wednesday, Indonesian police stormed a prison on the resort island of Bali to regain control after inmates took over and set part of it on fire in a riot during which at least two prisoners were shot and wounded, officials said.
The prison, about 10 km (six miles) north of the world-famous Kuta beach, is home to 1,200 inmates. The Australian prisoners include convicted drug traffickers Schappelle Corby and the so-called Bali Nine.- Fighting broke out late on Tuesday when inmates attacked a guard post near the entrance, forcing officers to flee. Police said they shot two prisoners in the legs when they confronted a mob wielding sticks and throwing bricks.
- Hundreds of armed police and army personnel stormed the prison at around 7 a.m. (midnight Tuesday GMT). Steady gunfire could be heard for 15 minutes coming from inside the prison, according to a Reuters witness.
- Police later said they fired only warning shots and regained control about an hour later.
- However, several inmates could still be seen at a guard tower in a different part of the prison near the main road about an hour after police said they had retaken control. "Long live Kerobokan's inmates," the prisoners shouted.
National police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution told Reuters: "We are trying to make the inmates go back into their blocks."Conflict at the prison first started about a week ago when two inmates had a knife-fight, leading to a split in the wider prison population that developed into a bigger fight between two rival groups, Nasution said.
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