A mouse plague in New South Wales, Australia, has forced a jail to relocate thousands of inmates while it carries out cleaning and renovations. More than 400 prisoners and 200 staff at the Wellington Correctional Centre will be moved to other facilities over the next two weeks.
The mice have caused extensive damage to prison infrastructure, including internal wiring and ceiling panels. Over the next 10 days, 420 prisoners and 200 staff will be relocated while the site has a deep clean, is repaired and is protected against future plagues. Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) expects the centre to be out of action for about four months. CSNSW Commissioner Peter Severin said other regional jails would take on the evacuees, starting with those facilities closest to Wellington. New South Wales is suffering from the worst mouse plague in decades. A bumper grain harvest has boosted the number of the rodents in the south-eastern state, where they have have been wreaking havoc for months, especially at farms. It has been caused by a combination of ideal weather conditions for breeding and a bountiful harvest that followed devastating bushfires and a years-long drought.
