Syrian Forces Assault Hama Prison to End Mutiny

Syrian security forces on Friday began an assault on a prison in the central city of Hama to end a mutiny estimated to involve 800 inmates, a monitoring group said.

"They fired tear gas grenades inside the prison after arresting the families of prisoners gathered outside the building concerned about their fate," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Video footage posted on social networks showed a corridor filled with flames and smoke as a voice is heard giving the date as May 6 and the location as the central prison in Hama.

The sound of bursting tear gas grenades can be heard as inmates chant "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) while others are heard coughing.

"There are reports of people becoming unconscious and cases of suffocation", said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

Earlier, he said security reinforcements had been sent to the jail "with a view to storming it in case negotiations fail."

The mutiny began on Monday, with some guards taken hostage after an attempt to transfer detainees to the military-run Saydnaya prison near Damascus.

Syrian activist group the Local Coordination Committees said security forces had been surrounding Hama prison for several days, and that 800 prisoners were involved.

It said they were protesting against dozens of prisoners being sentenced to death and also against conditions inside the jail.

Syria's main opposition group in a statement earlier Friday called on international organizations "to intervene to prevent an imminent massacre" of prisoners.

The High Negotiations Committee urged the international community to "shoulder its responsibilities" and stop the regime from carrying out "reprisals against the detainees."

Abdel Rahman said the inmates were demanding trials and that they not be transferred to Saydnaya.

Authorities have released 46 prisoners since the protest began, the Observatory said earlier, but said Friday water and power supplies to the jail remained cut off.

France on Friday warned of "deadly reprisals from the regime" to end the mutiny and urged Damascus's allies to exert pressure "to avoid another massacre in Syria."

More than 200,000 people have spent time in regime prisons since 2011, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information.

Tens of thousands of political detainees are reported to have died of torture, of which the Observatory says it has verified 14,000 cases.

More than 270,000 people have died in the Syrian conflict since in started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.