New Delhi - A hot air balloon carrying foreign tourists landed in a jail in northern India and caused panic among prison officials who thought a jailbreak was being attempted, police said on Wednesday.
The ballooning adventure that began in Pushkar in Rajasthan state went wrong on Tuesday after the operator landed the balloon on the jail premises in nearby Ajmer city.
“The jail officials were shocked to see this huge balloon descending on their prison from the sky. They immediately sounded an alert and called the police,” area police chief Hanuman Vishnoi said by phone.
Vishnoi said the balloon operator told him that he lost control of the balloon owing to strong winds.
“Thankfully, all prisoners were in their barracks at that time. We made some initial inquiries into the tourists, who were from the West Indies, and let them go.”
Jail authorities charged the balloon operator with “unauthorised entry” and the city administration cancelled his licence, local reports said. - Sapa-dpa