DURBAN - POLICE are hunting for an awaiting trial prisoner who escaped from the Phoenix police station yesterday.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said a case of escaping from lawful custody is being investigated by Phoenix SAPS.
Gwala said it was alleged that five awaiting-trial prisoners escaped at 8am yesterday morning.
“Five awaiting trial prisoners escaped from lawful custody. Four were re-arrested and one is still at large,” she said.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated, she said.
In July, in an attempted escape incident, IOL reported that two Westville Correctional Centre officials were stabbed in an early morning attack.
Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said the officers were stabbed during an altercation with remand detainees.
He said the incident was opportunistic, and the department would not tolerate such acts.
The day before the attack, Nxumalo said, an inmate at the uMzinto Correctional Centre was killed while trying to escape following a fire at the prison.
"Following the fire at uMzinto Correctional Centre, one inmate, from a group that had climbed to the roof in an attempt to escape, succumbed to his injuries after falling to the ground," Nxumalo said.
In April, The Mercury reported that a large number of prisoners escaped from a police vehicle in Pietermaritzburg.
The brazen hijacking attempt, allegedly by five AK47-wielding gunmen, saw 45 inmates, who were being transported from New Prison to the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court, escape.
THE MERCURY