Police on Crete yesterday peacefully quelled an uprising at the island’s Alikarnassos jail that began on Friday night when some 400 inmates climbed onto the roof.

Officers were called to the jail after prisoners destroyed surveillance cameras, set fire to mattresses and gathered on the prison roof to protest the detention of a fellow prisoner believed to have smuggled heroin into the institution.

Inmates reacted after hearing that guards had ordered a prisoner returning from a furlough to be transferred to hospital for inspection as they believed he had heroin in his stomach. Prisoners have called for such inspections to stop.

Police eventually convinced the inmates to return to their cells yesterday morning following talks between officers and a delegation of prisoners.

The incident was the latest in a series of revolts at prisons across the country in protest at overcrowding.