BFF-01 Four shot dead in PNG prison breakout: report

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PNG-PRISON-CRIME

Four shot dead in PNG prison breakout: report

SYDNEY, July 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Four prisoners were shot dead and two
wounded after a mass breakout at a jail in Papua New Guinea, a report said
Monday, with nine still on the run.

Inmates made a dash for freedom from Buimo jail in the Pacific nation’s
second largest city of Lae after a knife was allegedly smuggled in during
visiting hours on Saturday.

A guard was stabbed and the prisoners jumped a perimeter fence, the PNG
Post Courier reported.

It was the same jail where 17 prisoners were killed by police after a
similar breakout in May last year. Fifty-seven escaped on that occasion.

Lae Chief Superintendent Anthony Wagambie Jr said police had a tip-off
about a possible jailbreak and were deploying two patrol vehicles when the
emergency alarm went off.

“The escaping prisoners ran into the patrol vehicles and started throwing
stones, sticks and were armed with sharp objects,” he told the newspaper.

“Police opened fire on them, killing two instantly, a third collapsed close
by from loss of blood and a fourth was shot dead not too far from the prison
compound.”

It was not clear what those who escaped were in jail for, but the men who
fled last year were mostly serving time for armed robbery, car thefts, and
breaking and entering.

Crime and lawlessness is rampant in PNG, a sprawling nation where many
still live traditional and subsistence lives in remote areas.

Jails in the country — which is due to host an APEC leaders’ summit this
year — are often overcrowded, with prisoners forced to endure poor sanitary
conditions.

BSS/AFP/MSY/0830 hrs