6 inmates in California taken to hospital after prison fight

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Six inmates have been taken to hospitals after fighting broke out among dozens of armed inmates at a prison in Central California.

State Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton says no employees were injured in the disturbance late Tuesday morning at maximum-security Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, about 130 miles southeast of San Francisco.

Guards used pepper spray and rubber bullets to quell the fight that broke out among 200 inmates in an exercise yard.

Thornton says dozens of inmates were involved and numerous inmate-made weapons were recovered. One of the prisoners was airlifted to a hospital by helicopter.

There was no immediate cause for the fighting.

Thornton did not know the condition of the inmates who were taken to outside hospitals. Other wounded inmates were being treated at the prison.