Lucknow, March 11 (IANS): A violent clash between prison inmates and jail keepers left a person dead and several injured in Basti in Uttar Pradesh late Saturday evening.

The clash erupted inside the Basti prison, and soon went out of hand as berserk jail inmates went on rampage, broke barrack gates and set the kitchen on fire, police said Sunday.

Talking to IANS, a senior police official said prisoners snatched rifles from the security personnel and shot at them. In the gun fire that ensued, a prisoner was shot dead. More than a dozen prisoners and security men were injured and were taken to the Gorakhpur Medical College.

Trouble started when three murder accused were brought to the jail.

From the moment they entered the jail and they started creating ruckus and accused the police of falsely implicating them in the murder case. Some other jail inmates joined the altercation and tried to gate crash into the jail warden's office. Hundreds of inmates soon joined the mob and took over Gate number 3 and 4 of the jail and started throwing bricks at the security deployed within the jail.

To control the crowd, a team led by Superintendent of Police V.K. Singh reached the jail and more than 150 rounds were fired. Soon Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) P.K. Mishra joined the force. The violence was contained after more than two hours and more than two dozen rioting inmates were overpowered and shifted to separate barracks.

Jail Superintendent R.K. Kesarwani said the rioting had been brought under control. The state government has ordered the IG (Prisons) V.K. Gupta to probe the jail riot.