News / Brazil

52 inmates on the run after Brazil prison break

Wednesday, 25 January 2017 5:08 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 25 January 2017 10:14 AM ]

Smoke rises during a riot at Bauru’s Penitentiary Progression Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, January 24, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Brazilian police are hunting for at least 52 prisoners, who have managed to escape and remain at large after a mass riot broke out in an overcrowded jail in the city of Sao Paulo.

The prison break occurred in the Penitentiary Progression Center in the northwest of Sao Paulo on Tuesday after a prison guard confiscated a mobile phone from an inmate, according to the national prisons authority.

“The prisoners started a commotion and some took advantage of it to flee,” said a source in the prisons authority.

At least 150 inmates fled the prison, but 100 of them were recaptured by military police.

Brazilian military police stand near 100 prisoners recaptured after a jailbreak, January 24, 2017.

The prison, designed to host 1,124 prisoners, was holding over 1,427 inmates.

Brazil has recently seen an increase in prison riots, with the latest having occurred on Thursday at the Caico prison in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. At least one prisoner was killed in the riot.

According to official data, more than 622,000 adults are behind bars in Brazil, 67 percent more than what the prisons can hold. Rights activists have criticized prison conditions in Brazil.

Over 130 prisoners have also been killed in a wave of deadly gang clashes in overcrowded prisons across Brazil this year.

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