Melbourne, June 30 (IANS): Around 300 prisoners in Australia's Victoria state staged a protest on Tuesday, a day before a state-wide ban on smoking in prisons comes into effect.
Inmates of the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall, 20 km from Melbourne, wore masks, carried sticks and tore down the inner perimeter of the jail, setting fire to bins in the premises, The Age reported.
Police officers evacuated the prison staff and contained the prisoners within the outer perimeter of the jail.
The riot was sparked by a dispute over the smoking ban effective from July 1 across 14 prisons of Victoria state.
It began with 60 prisoners, before escalating to involve 300 others.
Tensions escalated as some prisoners were unable to buy tobacco for the past few weeks.