An inmate is dead after an apparent fight with his cellmate on Thursday inside Minnesota Correctional Facility-Rush City.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections said prison officers found the inmate unresponsive at 1:26 p.m. with "obvious injuries," and was soon pronounced dead.

"Preliminary information suggests that an altercation occurred between the victim and his cellmate," said officials. "The circumstances leading up to the incident are the focus of investigators."

The identities of the inmates involved have not been released, and corrections officials said its Office of Special Investigations is being assisted in this case by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Chisago County Sheriff's Office.

In August, three Rush City correctional officers were hurt, with one suffering a stab wound, when an inmate attacked them for reportedly trying to confiscate his homemade alcohol. That inmate, serving a life-sentence for first-degree murder, was transferred to Oak Park Heights prison, the state's maximum security facility.

According to corrections officials, the Rush City prison — located about 60 miles north of the Twin Cities — houses nearly 1,000 inmates, with nearly half locked up for homicide convictions.