Seven inmates have been killed and at least 17 others seriously injured amid fighting between prisoners inside a maximum security prison in South Carolina.
Prisons spokesman Jeff Taillon announced the grim outcome after State law Enforcement Division agents helped secure lee Correctional Institution around 3 AM today.
Taillon said no officers were wounded after multiple inmate fights broke out at 7:15 PM Sunday. He said 17 of the injured required medical attention outside the prison.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections tweeted that it involved multiple inmate-on-inmate altercations in three housing units.
lee County Fire/Rescue said ambulances from multiple jurisdictions lined up outside to tend to the wounded. The local coroner's office also responded.
The maximum-security facility in Bishopville houses about 1,500 inmates, some of South Carolina's most violent and longest-serving offenders. Two officers were stabbed in a 2015 fight. One inmate killed another in February.