Prison in lockdown as ‘bad drugs batch’ kills two inmates in major incident

Two inmates have died and multiple medical emergencies have been reported amid fears a bad batch of drugs has entered a men’s prison in Nottinghamshire, The Independent can reveal.

Prisoners at category C HMP Ranby, near Retford, are said to have been locked down as prison officers respond to the major incident.

Multiple sources described two days of chaos at the prison with two fatalities and reports of further medical incidents.

One insider claimed there had been up to 14 “code blues”, in which officers sound an alarm signalling a medical crisis such as a prisoner found unconscious, not breathing or experiencing a drug overdose.

Four ambulances were seen at the site on Tuesday, while an air ambulance and three more ambulance units were deployed to the prison on Wednesday morning, sources said.

“The prison is on complete lockdown,” the source said. “They have been round three times since this morning making sure no one else is dead or code blue.”

Prisoners have today been warned about a batch of contaminated spice, a synthetic form of cannabis, which is feared to be linked to the incidents, the source said.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate, and we will respond to its findings in due course.

“There is also an ongoing police investigation, so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

The last inspection of HMP Ranby, in October last year, warned the wide availability of drugs was a “considerable concern” and said the prison service needed to invest in physical security to stop drugs entering via drones.