Pakistani prison riot

Police in Pakistan have fired shots and used teargas to quell a riot in one of the country's main prisons.

There are reports of casualties, but no details so far.

Trouble began at the central prison in the northern city of Peshawar when warders tried to search some of the inmates.

A factory inside the jail was set on fire along with other buildings, and most of the nearly three-thousand prisoners are said to have become involved in the riot. The BBC Islamabad correspondent says that there have been outbursts of violence at the Peshawar jail in the past, but nothing on this scale.

She says that like many Pakistani jails, the prison suffers from severe overcrowding.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service