South Africa prison escape: Dozens re-arrested after mass jail break

‘The escapees overpowered officials, took the keys and locked three officials in a cell’

Scores of prisoners escaped a detention centre in South Africa after gaining control over guards and managing to make a run for it.

While 63 inmates who were detained at Malmesbury Correctional Centre in the Western Cape have been recaptured, six are still currently on the run.

The inmates, who are currently awaiting trial, escaped on Friday at around midday during their exercise session.

The department of correctional services said: “The escapees overpowered officials, took the keys and locked three officials in a cell and opened other cells before escaping through the main entrance and over the roof”.

The statement explained the centre, which is 41 miles along the west coast from Cape Town, had 451 offenders and 20 officials working at the time of the escape.

Justus Schoonraad, a high school headteacher who witnessed the mayhem, told local press some inmates hopped the fence and went onto the school grounds.

He said: “I was sitting at my desk and then I heard a few shots from the vicinity of the prison and that is about 400 metres from the school. I saw a lot of guys running around, and these guys were running all over the place.”

A bystander who happened to be sat in his car outside the jail filmed the mass escape.

Several men in yellow prison uniforms could be glimpsed running from the detention centre as shots can be heard in the footage. Some “even hijacked a vehicle”, the witness said.

Members of the public have been urged not to try and capture any of the inmates by police but to instead get in touch with the authorities.

On Friday night, the correctional department said 63 out of the 69 prisoners had been caught.