Nearly 160 inmates escaped after suspected rebels attacked a jail in the southern Philippines before dawn on Wednesday, and at least six people were shot dead as pursuing government forces traded fire with gunmen.
Acting provincial jail warden Peter John Bongngat Jr. said a guard was killed and an inmate was wounded in a gunbattle when dozens of gunmen stormed the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan in one of the country’s biggest jailbreaks in recent years.
Kidapawan city in Cotabato Province is about 930 kilometers or 580 miles southeast of the capital Manila.
Bongngat and Kidapawan police chief Leo Ajero said gunfire continued for hours after the attack as army troops and police, some in armoured tanks, hunted through the surrounding forests for the 158 escaped inmates and the gunmen who freed them.
Local village leader Alexander Austria told The Associated Press by telephone that he and his men captured one escaped man.
“We heard the gunfire and we sprang into action to guard our village,” Austria said. “We were afraid the escapees could try to enter our village to hide or take hostages.”
