Prisoners, who were sentenced to death for drug trafficking and other serious crimes, attempted to escape, the Iranian Mehr news agency reported.
Prisoners serving in the Gizilhasar prison in the Kerej city first set a fire at the prison in an attempt to escape. Then they tried to escape taking advantage of confusion, but the police managed to prevent their attempt.
Earlier, the Iran Human Rights (IHR) has published the annual report on the death penalty in Iran in 2010. Based on the report, at least 546 people were executed in the country during the report period. According to official Iranian sources 85 people have been executed in January 2011.
The Gizilhasar prison is one the biggest prisoners in the Middle East. Some 15,000 prisoners serve sentence here.