Isolated fights in a prison auditorium exploded into a large-scale uprising in which one inmate was stabbed to death and three were injured.
About 300 inmates took over the auditorium, a food service area and a recreation yard at the maximum-security prison Sunday night. Guards put down the uprising several hours later after moving in with tear gas and batons.No hostages were taken, but one guard was rescued by a fire truck that lowered its basket over the prison wall, said prison spokesman Chuck Strickland. A wire fence was between the inmates and the guard, authorities said.
Strickland said the prison was damaged but didn't elaborate.
Inmates began quarreling in the auditorium early Sunday evening. Strickland said officials were uncertain what caused the first fights.
"It continued rather sporadically and spread to involve a couple hundred inmates," said Greg Bogdan, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons in Washington. "It didn't appear to be anything that was planned."
About 100 guards with batons and tear gas moved in about three hours after the uprising began. The disturbance was quelled 11/2 hours later.
One inmate died of stab wounds, and three others were stabbed, Strickland said. He said two of the three were treated and released, and the third was hospitalized in stable condition.
Lt. Col. John Head, an Army spokesman at nearby Fort Leavenworth, said an inmate was treated at a hospital there for tear gas inhalation, and the guard who was rescued by the firefighters was treated for anxiety.