The dis­cov­ery of a loaded pis­tol among the prison pop­u­la­tion at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison (MSP), Gold­en Grove, Arou­ca, on Wednes­day, is caus­ing alarm among prison of­fi­cers.

The of­fi­cers are now seek­ing as­sur­ances about their safe­ty from top na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials, even as search­es in­ten­si­fied at the fa­cil­i­ty yes­ter­day.

“One doesn’t have to look too far back to the events of 2015, with that es­cape from the Port-of-Spain Prison,” Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don said.