An Australian prison siege ended on Monday after a group of inmates agreed to release a guard they had held for two days in return for a delivery of pizzas, prison officials said. A group of up to 20 inmates seized control of the reception area of the maximum security Risdon Prison in Hobart, capital of the southern island state of Tasmania, on Saturday, demanding better treatment and improvements to the jail. The siege was resolved in far less dramatic circumstances. "Our staff member was negotiated out with the delivery of 15 pizzas," Graeme Barber, Tasmania's director of prisons, told reporters.
The prisoners had earlier made a list of 24 demands. But none was so pressing as the need for a take-out meal and the guard was released unharmed not long after midnight.
About 20 prisoners, some being held as hostages, were involved in the siege. The last of the hostages was released by their pizza-filled captors early on Monday.
Risdon Prison holds Martin Bryant, who was convicted of Australia's worst massacre of modern times when he shot dead 35 people in 1996 in the Tasmanian tourist town and former penal colony of Port Arthur.
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