Forty-nine dead in prison riot in Colombia, prisons agency says

Forty-nine inmates died during an overnight riot in a prison in the southwestern Colombian city of Tulua, the head of the national prisons agency said early on Tuesday. "It is a tragic and disastrous event," General Tito Castellanos, the head of the INPEC agency, told local Caracol Radio, adding 30 people were injured.

The Andean country said it would release thousands of prisoners amid the coronavirus epidemic in 2020, after inmates rioted in protest against crowded conditions and lack of services.

Also Read: Colombians head to polls in tightest election in recent memory