Clashes at a prison in the central Iraqi city of Hilla have killed four prisoners and a guard on Saturday.

Clashes at a prison in the central Iraqi city of Hilla have killed four prisoners and a guard on Saturday.

The clashes, in which nine people were wounded and other eight inmates escaped, broke out after a prisoner seized a rifle from a guard and killed him, said Mohammed Ali al-Massudi , the governor of Babil province, of which Hilla is the capital.
"It seems this operation was organised with the help of other groups who helped the prisoners and were waiting for them outside the prison," Massudi told a news conference in Hilla, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad.

Prisoners also set fire to areas of the prison, he said.
Hilla is the capital of Bail province.

A justice ministry spokesman said earlier the clashes occurred on Friday night, and put the initial toll at three dead, while a first lieutenant in the Hilla police had said 15 inmates escaped, of whom three were later apprehended.