VAN, Turkey (Reuters) ? Prisoners set fire to a jail in Turkey's earthquake-hit city of Van on Tuesday and gunshots were heard as inmates fought their guards following a big aftershock.
A soldier said the prisoners had attacked the guards with scissors and knives, two days after 200 people are reported to have escaped in the chaos after the quake.
Reuters journalists saw flames at the building and white smoke billowing into the night sky, before half a dozen shots rang out. No more gunfire was heard in the following hours.
"The prisoners lit a fire when they weren't let out of their cells following the big aftershock," said a local government official, who declined to be named. "They were angry."
The 5.4 magnitude aftershock shook the region just before 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), spreading panic among survivors of Sunday's quake.
More than half a dozen mini-buses ferried soldiers into the prison compound, while ambulances waited outside. One soldier helped a bloodied comrade who was brought out of the prison to be treated for cuts.
"These shameless people. They threw scissors at him," he said while his friend was being treated. "They have everything inside, knives, daggers, everything. There's a whole gang of them."
Police threw teargas canisters to disperse an angry crowd that had congregated outside the jail. Earlier police scuffled with the people, as the crowd swelled to more than 200, including some relatives of the inmates.
One man gripped with hysteria, before being led away, screamed: "They're burning inside. They're burning alive."
While tensions mounted outside, a member of parliament for a pro-Kurdish party was allowed inside the jail to try to calm the situation.
Turkish media had reported that 200 prisoners escaped on Sunday after the quake brought down a perimeter wall, but 50 returned after visiting relatives to check on their safety.
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, who is overseeing relief operations in Van, has said he was unsure how many inmates had escaped and how many had come back.
Officials played down the size of the jailbreak, saying the media reports were exaggerated.
"Some inmates went out of the prison yard after the wall collapsed to see their families, and they returned after seeing them," Prison and Correctional Facilities General Manager Sefa Mermerci told the state-run news agency Anatolian.
He also denied that any Kurdish militants were among the inmates. Van has largely escaped the worst of a long running Kurdish separatist insurgency that has afflicted the southeast of Turkey.
"There are no prisoners serving time for terrorism crimes in this prison. This is a prison for ordinary crimes and criminals," Mermerci said.
(Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; editing by David Stamp)
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