2 OFFICERS DEAD, OTHERS HOSPITALISED FOLLOWING A PRISON BREAK ATTEMPT IN NORTH CAROLINA

Two prison employees were killed and several others seriously injured in an attempted prison break in North Carolina. A dispatcher at the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office revealed that the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon at the Pasquotank Correctional Institute in Elizabeth City.

It was disclosed by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, that an inmate set a fire in the sewing plant around 3:30 p.m., which injured several employees.

The two officers who were identified by the Department on Thursday night are correctional officer Justin Smith, 35-year-old, who has been working as a security in the Correction Enterprises Specialty Sewing Plant for five years, and the second a female of 50-year-old, Darren Veronica, a former correctional officer, but currently serves as correction enterprises manager who supervised inmates working in the Specialty Sewing Plant before her death that Thursday.

Those who work in our prisons do a difficult and demanding job that is critical to our safety. We're grateful to those fallen prison employees for their service, and we offer our condolences to their families, friends, co-workers and community at large on this tragic loss, The North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement.