One male inmate was killed and multiple others injured during a riot in Unit 29 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman on Thursday.
A fire started the same day by inmates in Unit 30, Building A, was quickly extinguished, Sunflower County Sheriff James Haywood told The Enterprise-Tocsin of Indianola.
By 5 p.m. Thursday, Haywood said the situation at the prison was "contained" and "under control," according to the newspaper.
The E-T reported that Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton described Thursday's incident as a gang-related fight.
Burton was quoted by WTVA news as saying that several of the injured inmates were treated at the prison's hospital and others were taken to area hospitals. She said there were so many injured that the prison's medical facility could not accommodate them all, the report added.
Unit 29 holds up to 1,568 inmates, according to a prison website.
Tallahatchie County law enforcement and firefighting personnel were among those responding to calls for assistance at the state's largest prison.
"They called and just asked us to be on standby," Tallahatchie County Sheriff Jimmy Fly told The Sun-Sentinel at 2:49 p.m. Thursday. "Right now, we're just outside the gates just staging up."
The sheriff said many other responding lawmen and Mississippi Department of Corrections probation officers were on the scene.
"I'm not sure who all is inside [assisting], because there were already some people inside when we got here," Fly noted at the time.
Richard Gipson, public liaison officer for the Tutwiler Fire Department, said he and other Tutwiler firefighters were toned out at 1:30 p.m. to help with the fire at Unit 30.
Tutwiler firefighters were on the scene for about an hour, assisting the Parchman Fire Department by shutting off the sprinkler system and ventilating smoke from the building, Gipson added. They were back in their fire station at 2:48 p.m.
Gipson said he saw inmates standing outside the building, some in handcuffs, as firefighters worked. Law enforcement personnel from Bolivar County, Ruleville and Drew police departments, the Sunflower County Sheriff's Office and the Mississippi Highway Patrol were among those he personally observed there.
"It's a mess over there!" he said at 3:09 p.m.
Thursday's upheaval was the second reported this week at Parchman.
One Parchman inmate died and several others were injured in a New Year's Eve fight among prisoners at the penitentiary. The inmate killed was identified as Walter Earl Gates, 25, sentenced to 10 years in prison from Coahoma County in 2015.
It was the second of three fatalities at Mississippi prisons this week. During what MDOC called "a major disturbance" Sunday at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville, in Greene County, 40-year-old inmate Terrandance Dobbins was killed and two others were hurt.
The earlier incident prompted a lockdown at all prisons across Mississippi, including state prisons, private prisons and regional facilities.
Under the lockdown, which was issued "for the safety of the public, staff and inmates," according to MDOC, inmates can't go outside, make phone calls or receive visitors. Movement of inmates is limited to only emergencies.
In a statement released Thursday, MDOC said the ban on visitors will continue through at least this weekend.
"All available resources are being used to address disturbances occurring around the state," the press release noted. "The MDOC is being responsive in investigating the violence."
Also Thursday, according to an Associated Press report, one inmate was killed and two were injured in a fight at the Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility, a county-run facility that holds state inmates. The dead man was identified as 26-year-old Gregory Emary, of Hernando, who was serving a 16-year sentence for burglary, the AP added.
IN THE PHOTO: This picture provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows inside one of the cellblocks at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.
This story has been edited to correct the inmate capacity at Parchman's Unit 29.
