Riot at Bari juvenile prison - guards hit by detainees

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 2 - A riot was reported on Monday at the juvenile detention facility of Bari, in the Puglia region.
    Prison guards reported a brawl between inmates who then turned against penitentiary police officers, slapping and punching them.
    Nobody was injured and the situation has returned to normal, sources at the detention facility said.
    The incident followed riots recorded over the past few weeks at juvenile prisons in Rome, Turin and Milan.
    In the latest episode, inmates at Milan's Beccaria prison in the night between Saturday and Sunday set mattresses on fire to create chaos and enable detainees to attempt an evasion, prompting the intervention of firefighters.
    Four detainees who tried to evade were found by police on the building's roof a few hours after the riot began and eight detainees and police officers were injured, none of them seriously.
    Citing the latest incidents, the leaders of prison officers' unions Sappe and Cosp spoke about an "emergency" in juvenile detention facilities, often plagued by overcrowding.
    "Let's ask ourselves whether this is a form of dissent or whether someone decides to acknowledge that we are dealing with an emergency", Domenico Mastrulli, leader of Cosp, said on Monday. (ANSA).