Inmates flee as shells hit east Ukraine jail

The escaped prisoners could try to get arms.

Inmates at a high-security facility stand in a yard after shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine on August 11. Local authorities say more than 100 prisoners have fled from a high-security facility after it was hit by shelling in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. City council spokesman Maxim Rovensky said Monday a jail riot was precipitated by a direct rocket hit that claimed the life of at least one inmate. The fugitives include people jailed for murder, robbery and rape. AP PhotoShow less

KIEV // Over 100 inmates broke out of jail when shells rained down on a high-security prison in the besieged rebel stronghold of Donetsk in east Ukraine, killing one, local authorities said on Monday.

Mortar blasts rocked the correctional facility in a western district of the city Sunday evening, hitting the living areas, administrative headquarters and an electrical substation, the city council said in a statement.

The bombardment sparked a mass jail break that saw scores of detainees flee the prison.

“A riot started in the facility and 106 people escaped their place of detention,” the statement said, adding that three convicts were seriously wounded by the shelling.

By Monday morning some had been returned to the facility, with a prison official said that 40 inmates were still missing and thought to be hiding in buildings around the prison.

A shell hole some 50 centimetres deep could be seen in the asphalt in a jail yard.

A spokesman from the rebel Vostok battalion going by the nom de guerre Koba said that insurgent fighters had come to secure the location over fears that escaped prisoners could try to get arms.

Inner city Donetsk has been pounded by heavy shelling over the past few days as Ukrainian forces have surrounded the city and vowed to retake the pro-Russian rebel bastion.

A growing number of civilian casualties have been reported as artillery bombardments have hit hospitals and homes around the beleaguered city.

Over 1,300 have been killed and more than 285,000 people have fled their homes in the east due to fierce clashes in four months of what the Red Cross has already deemed a civil war.

* Agence France-Presse