KABUL, Feb 27: A standoff between security forces and hundreds of rioting inmates at Afghanistan’s main jail dragged into a second day on Monday, with the army threatening to storm a seized cell block if negotiations failed.

There were believed to be bodies of about four prisoners among the nearly 1,300 prisoners, who had not been given food since the riot erupted late Saturday at Pul-i-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul.

The rioters had also refused to hand over their wounded, believed to be at least 30 people, to ambulances waiting outside the complex, officials said. There were calls from inside the building for food and medicine, they said.

Security forces had closed the gate into the complex to hold back prisoners who appeared to have armed themselves with makeshift weapons including steel bedposts and shards of glass, witnesses inside the jail said.

Negotiations between the prisoners — including about 300 Taliban and Al Qaeda members — and government officials opened early Monday.

“The negotiations are still ongoing but if it doesn’t work, we will intervene militarily. We will carry out an operation,” an Afghan army official said on condition of anonymity.

About 200 extra soldiers took up positions at the compound where hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and police reinforcements arrived on Sunday.

The riot erupted late Saturday when prisoners attacked wardens and set bedding and furniture ablaze.

They smashed windows and doors and ripped holes in walls separating units for women, criminals and political prisoners — including those from Al Qaeda and the Taliban, officials said.

Prison wardens opened fire to control the situation, apparently causing some of the casualties. Others appeared to have occurred when police periodically fired into the building after the riot.—AFP