Inmates escape Indonesian prison

Inmates escape Indonesian prison

At least 30 inmates escaped a prison in Indonesia's North Sumatra province after prisoners rioted and set fire to the building, police said on Monday.

At least 16 of the inmates who escaped from the Labuhan Ruku prison in Batubara district late Sunday were recaptured, said local police chief Japerson Parningotan Sinaga.

It was the second prison riot in the province since last month, when five people died after inmates ran amok and set the Tanjung Gusta prison in the city of Medan ablaze.

Sunday's riot was sparked by inmates' opposition to the transfer of 46 prisoners from another facility, Sinaga said.

"We have difficulty housing inmates because the fire destroyed 75% of the building," Sinaga said.

The prison was designed to house 250 inmates but there were more than 800 prisoners at the time of the riot, said the head of correctional service department in the province, Amran Silalahi.

Indonesia's 422 prisons hold more than 140,000 inmates, even though they were designed for about 80,000, according to the Justice Ministry.

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