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Indonesia Sees 2nd Prison Escape in Days as Drug Suspects Flee


Indonesian police say 12 prisoners accused of drug offenses broke out of a jail Wednesday on the island of Batam, in the country's second mass prison escape in the past week.

Police said the inmates used iron bars from their beds to beat up a prison guard and break a window in the warden's office before fleeing the overcrowded facility on the Indonesian island off the southern coast of Singapore.

The jail has a capacity of 250 inmates but was holding about 400. Indonesian authorities launched an operation to recapture the drug suspects and apprehended one of them.

In an earlier incident last Thursday, more than 200 inmates fled from a prison in Medan city on Indonesia's biggest island of Sumatra. Police recaptured about 100 of those escapees but were still searching for the other fugitives, including four Islamist militants.

The break-out happened as prisoners rioted in protest at electricity and water stoppages at the facility, which also is overcrowded. Five people were killed in the unrest.
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