Prison riot in Indonesia leaves police officers dead

Six people have been confirmed dead in a riot in a high-security prison outside Indonesia‘s capital, Jakarta.

Of the dead, five were highly trained counterterrorism police officers and one was a prison inmate, according to officials.

The riot broke out late on Tuesday in the prison, located in Depok and holding suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from the site, on Wednesday, said the inmates want to meet their leader, Aman Abdurrahman, a self-proclaimed leader of ISIL in Indonesia who was detained and is currently put on trial for plotting an attack on the same prison.

Three ISIL suspects had been arrested four days before the riot by police, who said they were plotting to attack the police force’s headquarters in Jakarta.

As clashes erupted between the inmates and the officers in the prison, some inmates managed to escape by breaking down doors and slipping out of their cellblock, according to the officials.

The escaped prisoners then took a number of officers hostage, five of whom have now been declared dead.

The prisoners stole guns, ammunition and weapons, the officials said, adding that some of the police officers remain in captivity.

A tense situation has last at the prison for over 18 hours now, with police officers seeking to arrest inmates involved in the riot on “terrorism” charges.

Negotiations to resolve the crisis have also been taking place between since Tuesday night, reports have said.