Penitentiary staff quell riot at Stony

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This article was published 22/07/2010 (5739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STONY MOUNTAIN — Stony Mountain Penitentiary is in lockdown after a riot broke out earlier this afternoon in the medium security institution about 12 kilometres north of Winnipeg. One person has been brought out on a stretcher and removed from the scene by ambulance.

A second person is believed to have left in another ambulance about a half hour later.

Chris McLauchlan, spokesman for the medium-security federal prison, said about 20 inmates in one unit refused to be locked up in their cells at 2:45 p.m.

"Those offenders proceeded to destroy property and barricade themselves on the unit itself," said McLauchlan. "Staff were quick to intervene, negotiations were attempted, but the inmates refused to communicate. As a result, our institutional emergency response team was deployed and the offenders were returned to their cells."

There was no indication whether the victim on the stretcher was a prisoner or a member of the corrections staff.

Two ambulances were on the scene at 5:30 p.m.  A third arrived about 6:30 p.m. and medics were seen carrying a stretcher inside. Another ambulance arrived just before 7:30 p.m., replacing the one that left.

Mounties have not been called out, an RCMP spokesman said.