Seventeen Prisoners On The Run After Comoros Islands Prison Break

Authorities were still hunting Thursday for a group of 17 prisoners that broke out of jail in the Comoros islands after prison authorities said they had recaptured some escaped inmates.

Twenty-three prisoners fled on Wednesday evening but six were quickly found, according to the head of the prison administration in Moroni, the capital of the Indian Ocean island chain.

The inmates took advantage of a transfer from the yard to their dormitories to make their getaway, prison authorities said, without giving further details.

Full circumstances of their escape are still not clear, but public prosecutor Ali Mohamed Djounaid said the prisoners made off “without any outside intervention”.

Moroni prison was built in the 1960s to house 80 people, but now holds more than four times as many, according to the prison administration.

The run-down facility sees frequent protests calling for better conditions of detention.