30 PSYCHIATRIC CENTRE PATIENTS ESCAPE DURING SMOKING RIOT

MANZINI – The banning of smoking for patients admitted to the National Psychiatric Hospital has resulted in them staging a violent protest action.

The patients are said to have burnt their sleeping mattresses as part of the protest action and while guards attempted to quell the violence, about 30 of the patients managed to escape.

Information obtained is that the protest was organised after the institution banned patients from smoking and they wanted it to be legalised again.
The protest took place on Tuesday afternoon and yesterday morning. On Tuesday, the rowdy patients protested and broke the main gate of the centre.

A well placed source within the centre said yesterday morning, some of the patients at Ward Four threw their sleeping mattresses in front of their accommodation units and set them alight.

He said the flames, accompanied by dark thick clouds of smoke together with the noise of the rioting patients, attracted the attention of the guards and nurses who were on duty, among other staff members.

“When they opened one of the gates to the ward, the rebellious patients threw themselves onto them, pushed them out of the way and ran towards the institution’s main gate,” the source said.

He said when they went towards the main gate, where they clashed with the security guards who were stationed at the entrance, they opted to jump over the about 2.5-metre fence with razor wire at the top.

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