An Italian prisoner held a guard at gunpoint and shot at fellow inmates with a weapon believed to have been smuggled in by drone in what seems to be a failed attempt at a prison break.

According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, the 28-year-old gangster fired three shots at prisoners he had argued with.

Donate Capece, head of the Sappe prison union, said the prisoners who were fired at were uninjured following the attack, the Daily Mail reports.

The mafioso got permission to leave his cell to have a shower, but once the door was closed, he pulled out the gun and pointed it at a guard, forcing him to hand over the keys to the other cells, Capece added.

Unable to open the cells however, the gunman proceeded to shoot at his intended targets through the bars instead.

The man then used an illegal mobile phone to call his lawyer, who advised him to turn his weapon over to the authorities at the prison.

“We assume the weapon arrived by drone”, Capece said.

The incident was just the latest in a series which have raised concerns over the management of Italy’s prisons, with the Uipla prison guard union calling on the government to set up a crisis unit following the incident, saying the prison system was ‘out of control’.

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The Mediterranean country has the most crowded jails throughout the European Union, with 120 prisoners per 100 places, according to the Council of Europe’s 2020 report.

In comparison, France had 115 prisoners per 100 places while Spain had 70.8.

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