Bancali, prisoner sets fire to cell and is saved by agents

Fire in a cell in Bancali prison.

The cause of the attack last night was an inmate who set fire to a mattress and furniture, causing toxic fumes to invade the section where hundreds of people are being held.

It was the prison police officers who stopped the fire, saved the perpetrator, and secured the inmates of the section .

According to the general secretary of Uil Pa Michele Cireddu , it seems that the arsonist tried to prevent rescue efforts by blocking the police officers from entering the cell. Seven of them had to seek emergency care after inhaling toxic fumes from the fire.

"The promptness - Cireddu states - with which the Agents intervened averted a tragedy because if the flames had flared up in an uncontrollable manner, it would have been even more difficult to secure an entire section and save the author of the fire from a dramatic fate". The secretary then returns to one of the shortcomings of the District Prison: "What is certainly catastrophic is instead the fact that the Department is procrastinating in sending a permanent Director and a Superintendent who can intervene immediately".