TAIPEI: Six inmates took prison staff including the warden hostage, seized guns and ammunition, and demanded safe exit from a prison in southern Taiwan on Wednesday, authorities said.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice said it had not agreed to the demands of the inmates, who were holding Warden Chen Shih-chih and another prison official after the pair offered to swap themselves for earlier hostages. No injury had been reported, the ministry said. The inmates, serving long sentences for burglary, murder and drug crimes, also seized from the prison’s armory 4 rifles, six handguns, and more than 200 bullets.

Witnesses interviewed by private cable news station TVBS said gunshots were heard.

Other reports said the shots were fired into the air.

Within hours, armed police had surrounded the prison in the port city of Kaohsiung, and snipers were shown arriving at the scene, according to live feed by TVBS.

Authorities also had called on relatives of the inmates to plea for the release of the hostages.

The council resolution says majority ethnic Sinhalese-controled governments in Colombo since the country became independent from Britain in 1948 have carried out state sponsored pogroms, sexual violence, cultural and linguistic destruction.

The council’s resolution says the UN investigation must extend to its charge of genocide. “The UN Security Council should refer the situation in Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for prosecutions based on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”

The government spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Sri Lankan troops crushed the Tamil Tigers in May 2009 ending a 26-year campaign for an independent homeland for Tamils in the county’s north and east.

There is no accurate estimate as to how many people were killed in the violence.

UN report has said up to 40,000 civilians may have been killed in just the final months of the fighting.

The Sri Lankan soldiers have been accused of deliberately shelling civilians, blocking food and medical convoys for civilians and undercounting the number of civilians who were trapped in the small strip of land where the rebels had been cornered.

The rebels recruited child soldiers and were accused of holding civilians as human shields and killing those trying to escape.

The new government of President Maithripala Sirisena elected last month has moved fast to mend relations with the US strained under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa largely due to his unwillingness to probe wartime abuses.