‘Very serious’ prisoners escape in wake of Irma

Disaster: Marines help to maintain law and order on British Virgin Islands

Around 100 “very serious” prisoners have escaped from jail on the British Virgin Islands in the wake of Hurricane Irma, a minister has said.

Foreign Minister Sir Alan Duncan told the Commons the convicts pose a “serious threat of the complete breakdown of law and order” on the territory.

Sir Alan said Marines from RFA Mounts Bay were used to “protect the governor and everything else about law and order”.

He said more than 500,000 British nationals were in the path of the hur- ricane and that 997 British military personnel are now in the Caribbean helping with the relief effort.

He added that while the death toll was low for a storm of this magnitude, the infrastructure on Barbuda “no longer exists”.

Sir Alan said: “Over 500,000 British nationals, either residents or tourists, have been in the path of Hurricane Irma.”

Five people died in the British Virgin Islands and four in Anguilla.

Forty seven British police officers have also arrived in the British Virgin Islands.

Already, 20 tonnes of UK aid has arrived in the region, including more than 2,500 shelter kits and 2,300 solar lanterns.

Nine tonnes of food and water supplies are due to be flown out to Anguilla imminently, Sir Alan said.

There were 420,000 Brit- ish citizens in Florida either as residents or visitors, where Hurricane Irma also caused devastation.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry attacked the government’s response to the disaster for being “too little and too late”.

Priti Patel, Secretary of State for International Development, said there were now 1,000 British soldiers and more than 50 police officers in the Caribbean helping to alleviate “tremendous hardship and suffering”.

She added: “We’re working on the ground to re-establish governance of those islands again.”

The troops are delivering food and clean water alongside “survival packs”, with the ship HMS Ocean heading over, loaded with thousands of “long term” supplies.

Questioned about lack of preparation, Ms Patel said some aid agencies who moved supplies on to islands before the storm ended up losing them.

She added that discussions around reconstruction had started and that “long term work and planning is in the pipeline”.

DEDICATION: Jean Chatelier heads off to work at a supermarket in Fort Myers, Florida, after Hurricane Irma flooded the state, shortly after devastating the Caribbean

British Marines help with the post-hurricane clean-up on Tortola, biggest of the British Virgin Islands