AMITE — After reports of smoke in the parish jail, Tangipahoa Parish deputies evacuated a majority of the facility's inmates.

Deputies said that smoke was reported inside the jail on Thursday afternoon. After this, many of the jail's inmates were put into an evacuation protocol, which also involved a heavy presence of other nearby law enforcement.

While inmates were evacuated, deputies said they had to use pepper spray to disperse some fights in the middle yard of the facility. Those injured in the fights were given medical attention, but no one else was injured as a result of the shutdown.

By 9:45 p.m., the smoke in the jail was cleared and the facility returned to normal operations.