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"It is a tragic and disastrous event," General Tito Castellanos,
the head of the INPEC agency, told local Caracol Radio, adding
that the prison had a total number of 1,267 inmates.
It was not immediately clear what caused the riot
Colombian President Ivan Duque, who is on a visit to Portugal,
said on Twitter the incident would be investigated.
"We regret the events in the prison in Tulua, Valle del Cauca. I
am in touch with (General Tito Castellanos) and I have given
instructions to carry forward investigations that allow us to
clarify this terrible situation," Duque said.
The Andean country released some prisoners during the
coronavirus pandemic after some two dozen inmates were killed
during protests in 2020 against crowded conditions and lack of
services in jail.
Hundreds have died in prisons in neighboring Ecuador over the
last year, in what the government there says is violence
connected to drug gang competition and which it has failed to
quell.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing
by Andrew Heavens and Gareth Jones)
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