COLOMBO — At least 27 people were killed and a senior police officer seriously wounded in a gunfight in Sri Lanka's biggest prison that began when police came under fire from inmates, officials and police said on Saturday.

The army brought the violence under control before dawn and freed staff held hostage at the Welikada prison in the capital Colombo, jail officials and military said.

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Twenty seven people have been confirmed dead, prisons minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera told parliament.

The violence erupted when officers from the Special Task Force (STF), Sri Lanka's elite police commandos, were searching the jail for drugs and illegal mobile phones.

PhotoBlog: Dozens killed in prison gunfight with Sri Lankan police

"When they were coming out, prisoners started to attack them with stones. The STF used teargas and the prisoners fired at the STF," Police Spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said.

Witnesses said they saw police shooting toward the jail, where armed prisoners were on the roof during the clash.

Prisons Commissioner P. W. Kodippili told Reuters that the prisoners had obtained the weapons — some of them machineguns —by breaking into the prison armory.

"The search operations are continuing to clear the place and recover the weapons and also to find the escapees," he said,

Army Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said a large number of weapons were found along with six bodies during the search operation.

The commanding officer of the elite police force that had come under attack was in intensive care, the head of Colombo National hospital said.

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"We've got 59 injured and 51 are still taking treatments and 16 are dead bodies," an official at the hospital told Reuters.

The jail has about 4,500 inmates, including members of the former defeated Tamil rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) movement that fought a protracted war of independence, ending in 2009, but officials said it was unclear how many, if any, of them had been involved in the uprising.

"We don't know who is involved in this, I don't think any LTTE suspects are involved but I don't know," Commissioner Kodippili told Reuters.

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Kodippili also said the officials are taking the count of inmates to find out how many escaped.

"We don't know exactly how many have escaped now we are taking the count," Kodippili said.

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Members of Sri Lanka's military took place in a "Victory Day" parade Saturday to mark the defeat of Tamil Tiger separatists in a 25-year civil war.

The parade took place in the capital Colombo and there was also a two-minute silence in memory of 24,000 security force personnel who died during the near conflict, which ended in 2009, Sri Lanka's defense ministry said on its website.

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In an address to the nation, President Mahinda Rajapakse said he still could not dismantle military camps in the former Tamil Tiger-controlled areas, the AFP news service reported.

"The diaspora has not stopped their activities [against Sri Lanka government forces]," Rajapakse said, referring to Tamil separatists abroad, according to AFP.

"It is no secret that LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] leaders are freely operating abroad," he added. 

A U.S-backed resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council last month urged Sri Lanka to investigate alleged abuses during the last months of the war. Rights groups claim the president is implicated in shooting fighters as they sought to surrender.

In recent months, rights workers and journalists have been targeted by a government media campaign against "traitors" it says helped the defeated guerrillas.

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