iStock/Thinkstock(ELIZABETH CITY, N.C.) — Two prison employees were killed and ten others hospitalized with injuries after an attempted prison break in North Carolina, officials said.
The incident occurred Thursday afternoon at the Pasquotank Correctional Institute in Elizabeth City, a dispatcher at the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News.
Around 3:30 p.m., an inmate set a fire in the sewing plant, which injured several employees, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Attempted escape at Pasquotank CI in Elizabeth City. Fires set in prison sewing plant. Several employees injured. More info when available.
— NC Public Safety (@NCPublicSafety) October 12, 2017
The prison currently houses 729 inmates, according to the department of public safety. Correction Enterprises, which works within the safety department, operates a sewing plant on site.
Three of the ten patients sent to the Sentara Albemarle Medical Center were transferred to the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia, said Sentara Healthcare spokesperson Peter J. Sengenberger in a statement. Sengenberger reported in a previous statement that nine people had been taken to Sentara Albemarle Medical Center, and two of those were transferred to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. Five more people were expected, according to the earlier statement.
The health care system asked the families of patients bring government-issued identification and the patient’s full name with them to the hospital. The injuries to some of those involved are serious, according to Keith Acree, North Carolina Department of Public Safety spokesperson. He added that to his knowledge, no one escaped from the prison.
The conditions of the patients were not released.
Three local public schools were placed on lockdown following the incident. Students on school buses who had not already arrived home were brought back to the schools due to the potential of inmates being in the area, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools said on Facebook. The lockdown has since been lifted.
The situation is under control, the department of public safety said. Further details were not immediately available.
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