This disturbing footage recorded inside a Scottish prison shows prisoners celebrating after appearing to take control of a wing and arming themselves with bars after chaos broke out yesterday.
The incident allegedly occurred over fears among lags about the spread of coronavirus inside HMP Addiewell, reports the Daily Record.
In a video sent to the news outlet, a prisoner laughs as he discusses with his pals the vandalism done to the hall inside the 700-capacity prison in West Lothian, Scotland.
The lag, who is out of shot, says: “Mate, you’s have lost the plot. Have you trashed the whole place?”
He also asks the bare-chested prisoner in the video: “Where’s your cosh”, which results in a length of metal being produced.
The other lag then bursts out laughing, but the rest of the conversation is inaudible.
Worryingly, a prisoner holds up what looks like the identity card of an officer, employed by private services firm Sodexo.
Fears have been raised over how to limit the coronavirus pandemic among lags in prison given the close proximity to one another.
Earlier this month, a riot broke out in a complex in Columbia as prisoners panicked about the outbreak.
Iran has even taken the bold step of temporarily releasing all prisoners.
A source told the Record that there “is no effective way to apply social distancing inside a jail”.
“If one prisoner gets ill and they are not moved the whole population is at risk,” they said.
“The virus does not show symptoms for several days, so the continued closeness of prisoners is a big issue.”
During the incident, a “barricade” was made with mattresses and guards were “tossed out” of the wing, a source told the Scottish Sun.
They said black smoke “had been seen coming form the roof but was soon cleared”.
Scottish Fire and Rescue said they had attended the scene after receiving reports of a fire but were not needed to tackle the blaze.
A spokesman said: “We were alerted at 11.12am on Monday, March 23 to reports of a fire within a prison in West Lothian.
“Operations Control mobilised five fire appliances to West Calder’s HMP Addiewell, however the fire was extinguished by prison staff prior to the arrival of crews.
“Crews currently remain on the scene.”
An HMP Addiewell spokeswoman told Scottish Sun: “We can confirm there is an incident ongoing at HMP Addiewell. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
Daily Star Online has approached HMP Addiewell and Sodexo Justice Services for comment.
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