Violent altercation in the playground. A “stabbing” brawl between inmates on Wednesday afternoon at the Villefranche-sur-Saône remand center (Rhône), north of Lyon, left five injured, two of whom were serious, we learned from a prison source.
The firefighters were alerted shortly after 4:30 p.m. following this fight which broke out in a playground for an undetermined reason, this source told AFP, confirming information from the regional daily Progress.
An open investigation
Two of the detainees, aged 19 and 29 and hit in the chest, were hospitalized in Lyon in an “absolute emergency”, according to the firefighters. But according to the prison source, they had to return to their cell in the evening just like the other injured, slightly injured and hospitalized in Villefranche-sur-Saône. Their ages have not been communicated.
A judicial and administrative investigation was opened to clarify the circumstances of this brawl, it was added. Opened in November 1990, the Villefranche-sur-Saône remand center has a capacity of 636 places. It receives defendants (detainees awaiting trial) as well as convicted persons whose remaining sentence does not, in principle, exceed one year at the time of their final conviction, according to son site Internet.