A riot broke out at Pathein prison in Ayeyawady Region on January 6, and two policemen, nine staff from Correction Department and 63 prisoners and inmates were injured and one inmate died, according to the information team of the State Administration Council (SAC).

According to the announcement, on the morning of January 6, about 70 prisoners from a dormitory in Pathein Prison broke down the doors of the dormitory, screamed, swore and tried to attack the staff of the Prison Department, and the staff of the prison department persuaded them to return to their cells, but they did not comply and continued to shout and create riot.

Then some inmates from another dormitory destroyed the courtyard doors in their dormitories and destroyed CCTVs and went to the disciplinary office in the prison and tried to resist. They accelerated the vandalism in cooperation with the prisoners who started the riot, it said.

In order to maintain the situation due to such violent incidents, at around 9:45 in the morning, the staff headed by the director of the Correction Department of Ayeyawady Region, and security forces headed by the district police chief from the Myanmar Police Force, the security forces entered the prison and told the prisoners to disperse. However they did not obey the authorities and attacked the security forces using wooden sticks broken from their beds, bricks and broken solid plaster blocks, there was no situation to continue to disperse them. The security forces had to use riot control guns, batons and shields to suppress them. The inmates were fighting and beating each other while the security forces tried to control them, and the situation was brought under control by the security forces at around 11:30.

In the above incident, two members of the Myanmar Police Force and nine employees of the Correctional Department were injured, and one inmate died as a result of beatings among themselves. A total of 63 prisoners were injured, it said.

According to the preliminary investigation of the process, on the night of January 5, a keypad phone was found and seized from an inmate, and he was not satisfied with the process while taking necessary action. The incident occurred because they tried to incite each other and create a riot, it said.