Inmates killed with homemade knives and 17 others injured during seven hours of fighting in a maximum-security prison in Bishopville

Seven inmates in a maximum-security prison in South Carolina were brutally killed with homemade knives on Monday morning as wardens struggled for seven hours to bring mass fighting under control. At least 17 prisoners were seriously injured as inmates fought uninterrupted before authorities regained control of Lee Correctional Institution about 3 a.m. Monday, South Carolina prisons spokesman Jeff Taillon said. "The incident at Lee CI resulted in 17 inmates requiring outside medical attention and seven inmates were killed," the department said on its Twitter account. State Law Enforcement Division agents helped secure the Lee Correctional Institution about 3 a.m. Monday after the fights began at 7:15 p.m. Sunday, prisons spokesman Jeff Taillon said. Lee Correctional Institution, which is reported to have the capacity to hold nearly 1,800 inmates, is a maximum security facility built in 1993 to house violent offenders and inmates who exhibit behavioural problems. Two officers stationed there were also stabbed in 2015. At the Bishopville prison where the seven were killed, one inmate held a guard hostage for 90 minutes in March and another killed a fellow prisoner in February. At least seven inmates may have been beaten, stabbed and slashed to death in a nonstop riot at a South Carolina maximum security prison, authorities said.
South Carolina authorities announce that a riot yesterday at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, Lee County, killed seven inmates and wounded seventeen others.