SACRAMENTO (BNO NEWS) – Seven inmates are injured after prison guards on Saturday opened fire during a riot at a Folsom, California prison, BBC reported.

Some of the prisoners’ injuries are believed to be critical and life threatening, prison spokesperson Luis Patino said. The riot, which involved around 200 inmates, started on Friday night. No guards were injured, according to reports.

Three of the wounded inmates were taken to local hospitals, while others were treated at the jail. Initial reports indicate that five inmates were wounded by the guards when they opened fire. The number of casualties increased, but Patino said that it was unclear if the wounded were shot by the guards are injured by other inmates.

The medium security prison, which has a capacity of around 4,000 prisoners, is now under control and the cause of the riot is being investigated, the spokesperson said. Folsom State Prison, which is about 20 miles from the state capital of Sacramento, was made a cultural icon when influential singer-songwriter Johnny Cash named the prison in his 1955 song “Folsom Prison Blues”.

Cash performed the song for inmates at the prison’s refectory in 1968.

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