Sri Lanka deployed hundreds of troops and elite commandos on Sunday (August 2, 2026) to contain riots at an overcrowded prison in which one inmate was killed and six others wounded, police said.

Deputy police inspector-general Sanjeewa Medawatte said the situation was under control after inmates destroyed multiple buildings on Saturday (August 1, 2026) inside Mahara Prison, just outside the capital Colombo.

“We got reinforcements from the armed forces and the Special Task Force commandos to restore order and send the inmates back to their cells,” Mr. Medawatte told reporters outside the prison.

In November 2020, a riot erupted at the facility in which 11 inmates were shot and killed, and nearly 120 others wounded.

The latest unrest came almost a month after another prison riot in the same region, in which 10 guards and 21 inmates were killed.

Mr. Medawatte said inmates at Mahara Prison had completely destroyed the kitchen, the hospital, a newly built rehabilitation building and vocational training facilities.

The prison housed 4,100 inmates, about four times its capacity, an issue common across the country’s jails.

Last month, the authorities announced plans to convert disused state buildings into prisons.

More than three-quarters of the inmates in Sri Lanka are remand prisoners awaiting trial, and most are held in connection with drug offences.

At least one inmate was killed, and another six were taken to hospital after a riot at a prison outside Sri Lanka’s capital on Saturday (August 1, 2026), police said.

The violence at the Mahara Prison outside Colombo came about a month after clashes at another overcrowded jail killed 10 guards and 21 inmates in Sri Lanka’s worst prison riot in years.

Additional police units were sent to guard the high-security Mahara Prison after rioting broke out on Saturday (August 1, 2026) morning, police said.

“We sent STF (Special Task Force) commandos to guard the perimeter, but we are not deployed inside,” a police official said.

The official said seven wounded prisoners were removed from the jail but one had died.

An AFP photographer outside the prison saw two truckloads of soldiers also being deployed along with the police commandos.

Rioting at the same prison during the Covid-19 pandemic in December 2020 killed 11 inmates and wounded 117, leading the government to release hundreds of inmates from overcrowded jails.

Authorities announced plans shortly after the Negombo riot in early July to convert disused state buildings into prisons.

That violence intensified scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s chronically overcrowded jails, with official figures showing prisons were operating at roughly four times their intended capacity.

The additional prisons have yet to be commissioned.