172 escape Haiti prison

Police were searching cars and boats for escaped prisoners on Sunday after recapturing at least a dozen of the 172 inmates who overpowered guards and escaped from a lockup in central Haiti, the prison’s director said.

The prison break occurred Saturday in Arcahaie, a coastal town about 30 miles north of Haiti’s capital. The community is far from the southwest area that was slammed by Hurricane Matthew earlier this month.

One guard was reported killed and others were injured. One inmate reportedly was killed when he took a bad fall trying to scale a prison wall.

Haitian National Police officers set up numerous checkpoints along roads to search vehicles. Small boats in fishing towns around Arcahaie were also being checked.

Heurtelou Paul Colson, director of the Arcahaie Prison, said the lockup housed 266 inmates.

Justice Minister Camille Edward Junior told Haiti’s biggest newspaper, The Nouvelliste, that the alleged mastermind of the escape, convicted kidnapper Yvener Carelus, was among the men captured after the prison break.

“He planned the escape from the inside with a few accomplices,” the minister was quoted as saying.

Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles said the interim government has given clear instructions to the justice minister to “take all necessary measures to remedy this unacceptable situation.”

Judge Henry Claude Louis-Jean said Saturday that the escapees stole an unknown number of weapons, and some exchanged gunfire with cops.

The inmates attacked after they were released from a crammed holding pen to bathe, according to provincial authorities.

Haitian prisons are notoriously overcrowded, and many inmates spend years in pretrial detention.