MOSCOW: Russian investigators on Saturday launched a probe over a riot at a prison involving at least 200 inmates, which a rights monitor said was sparked by abuse. The incident comes after Russia's prison service earlier this month sacked several officers after harrowing videos emerged of alleged rape and torture at a jail hospital in the central city of Saratov.

The riot kicked off on Friday afternoon at Correctional Colony No. 1 in Vladikavkaz, the capital of Russia's republic of North Ossetia.