Damascus - Scores of inmates were killed when prison authorities put down a riot staged Saturday by Islamist political prisoners in Sidnaya military jail near Damascus, a Syrian human rights group quoted an inmate as saying.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said on its website that Islamist prisoners staged a protest on Saturday morning in Sidnaya jail, prompting military police to open fire.

The human rights group cited an inmate as saying scores of prisoners have been killed and others had fled to a roof of the jail.

Families of inmates were appealing to President Bashar al-Assad through the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights to intervene immediately, the group said. (dpa)