A "dirty protest" by dissident republican prisoners in Co Antrim intensified today when high-powered hoses were used by prison authorities.
Up to 10 men are smearing excrement on their cell walls at Maghaberry Jail near Lisburn, Co Antrim, in a protest demanding segregation from loyalists.
Most of the prisoners are linked to the "Real IRA" and the Continuity IRA.
Prison authorities confirmed a number of men had been moved from their cells, but denied anybody was hurt during the operation today.
The campaign for segregation is being resisted because of fears prisoners will attempt to take control of their own areas.
A prison service spokesman said: "We are committed to running an integrated regime because it provides the safest conditions for staff and prisoners.
"By far the most serious incidents in Northern Ireland prisons took place in segregated conditions."
Irish Republican Prisoners' Welfare Association spokeswoman Ms Marian Price claimed warders went into the cells and beat the prisoners before hosing them down. She also urged the authorities to meet segregation demands before lives were lost.
She said: "This can be solved if someone sees sense and gives these men a wing of their own.
"It seems the Northern Ireland Office does not want to do that, but why should they be forced to live with people they would not be with on the outside.
"We don't want anyone to die, but it could reach that point easily."