WORLD> Asia-Pacific
13 prisoners escape from S. Philippines
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-14 15:03
DAVAO, Philippines -- Thirteen prisoners, some of them with ties with Abu Sayyaf militants, escaped from a jail in the southern Philippines on Tuesday morning, an official said Wednesday.

The jailbreak took place around 4:00 a.m. local time (2000 GMT on Monday) at the provincial jail in the township of Patikul, Sulu Province, said Senior Superintendent Danilo Bacas, a regional police spokesperson.

One of the inmates was shot dead by policemen in the pursuit operation.

"They dig a hole on the wall of their cell with the assistance of residents nearby the prison facility," Bacas said.

"Some of the prisoners have links with the Abu Sayyaf. There is an ongoing operation to recapture them," he added.

The 370-member Abu Sayyaf group, a listed international terrorist organization, has been accused of engineering a series of bloody public attacks and kidnappings in the Philippines in recent years.

The Philippine government, aided by the US military, has deployed thousands of troops in the Abu Sayyaf's strong-hold Basilan and Sulu provinces to scale up the operation against the group.