Warder exchanged for 15 pizzas

2005-05-09 07:55

Sydney - A tense two-day siege at an Australian maximum-security jail, in which inmates seized part of the prison and took hostages, ended peacefully early on Monday.

Police moved into Risdon prison in the Tasmanian state capital Hobart after the last prisoner left the reception area which inmates had seized on Saturday in protest at living conditions including poor food.

Overnight the inmates freed a prison warder whom they had been holding. Several fellow prisoners had also been held hostage.

State prisons chief Graeme Barber said windows were broken, furniture smashed and prison records burnt, but no one was hurt.

He disclosed that inmates had agreed to free the warder in exchange for a pizza delivery.

"Our staff member was negotiated out with the delivery of 15 pizzas," Barber said.

Issues in dispute included the provision of three cooked meals a day, items available in the prison canteen, employment and prisoner wages. Prisoners complained that conditions in the jail were substandard.

Barber admitted that Risdon is not up to maximum security standards, but authorities said it would be replaced by a new jail.

Risdon houses Australia's worst mass murderer, Martin Bryant, who killed 35 people in a 1996 shooting spree in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur.

- AFP