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Armed group breaks inmates out of high-security Haiti jail
A jail break on Sunday at a high-security prison near Haiti's capital left an unspecified number of drug traffickers and kidnappers on the loose, police authorities said.
A jail break on Sunday at a high-security prison near Haiti's capital left an unspecified number of drug traffickers and kidnappers on the loose, police authorities said.
The escape came after a group of armed men stormed into the jail in the morning, witnesses said.
"We heard a lot of gun shots, and we saw people running in every direction," said one nearby vendor who refused to give her name.
"It was a spectacular escape. There was no battle. A hundred inmates fled the prison," a lawmaker on the scene told reporters.
Before the jail break, the prison in Croix-des-Bouquets, northeast of Port-au-Prince, held 897 inmates. The jail was built in 2012, at a cost of more than $5.7 million, financed by Canada.
Among those on the loose were inmates convicted or accused of drug trafficking and kidnapping for ransom.
Anti-riot police were deployed to restore order, while Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe also came to the scene.
