No fewer than seven inmates have been reported dead while17 others require outside medical attention after several hours of fighting inside a maximum security prison in South Carolina United States.

Prisons spokesman, Jeff Taillon made the grim announcement on Monday shortly after State Law Enforcement Division agents helped secure the Lee Correctional Institution around 3.am, adding that no officers were injured after multiple inmate fights broke out at 7.15 pm on Sunday.

The maximum security facility in Bishopville accommodates about 1,500 inmates, some of whom are South Carolina’s most violent and long-serving offenders.

Two officers were stabbed in the same facility in a 2015 fight while another inmate was killed by another in February this year.