More than one hundred inmates have escaped from an Indonesian jail on Sumatra Island , in the latest breakout to hit the country’s creaking prison system.
The prisoners fled the jail in Siak district on Sumatra Island early in the morning after rioting and a fire broke out at the detention centre.
Authorities launched a massive manhunt and one hundred and fifteen prisoners had been recaptured by late morning, Riau province police chief Widodo Eko Prihastopo has said.
He added that dozens of detainees from a prison population of nearly six hundred and fifty remained at large.
The rioting was triggered after guards beat several inmates who were caught using methamphetamine.
Jailbreaks are common in Indonesia, where inmates are often held in unsanitary conditions at overcrowded prisons.
There was a spate of breakouts in 2013, including one where about one hundred and fifty prisoners including terror convicts escaped from jail.
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