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For these prisoners in Australia, taking away their cigarettes might have been the last straw
Heavily armed police are at a prison on the outskirts of Melbourne following a major riot reportedly linked to a smoking ban in prisons. A ban is due to come into effect on Wednesday.
Smoke rises from the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall, Melbourne.
Tim @maltim
Was nicotine behind Tuesday's big prison riot in Australia?
As many has 300 prisoners rioted in the yard of a Melbourne prison, at one point seizing control of the control room. Police used tear gas and water cannon to drive them back, sats Craig Butt, a reporter for The Age newspaper in Melbourne.
Prison staff were evacuated, according to The Age.
The riots prompted a large police presence — police cars, ambulances, firetrucks and a police helicopter.
@olivesophierose @Storyful yeah that's ok pic.twitter.com/h5wM2ipP4f
— Tim (@maltim) June 30, 2015
The inmates' smoking privileges and cigarettes had been taken away, on the eve of a provincewide prison smoking ban. More than 80 percent of Australia's inmates smoke, and rioters on in the courtyard on Tuesday were chanting the name of cigarettes they are supplied.
Like in the US, it's getting more difficult to be a smoker in Australia. There have been public health campaigns to really crackdown on cigarette smoking. In Australia they have plain packaging, so instead of any advertising images on the sides, there is instead, literally, a plain pack and a health warning printed very prominently on it.