Riyadh: Authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun an extensive investigation following the escape on Tuesday of approximately 200 deportees from a prison in Jeddah.
The exact number of men who escaped remains unknown. However most were from Somalia, Ethiopia or Yemen.
The escape happened when number of prisoners distracted security guards at the deportation centre by staging a riot over breakfast..
Sources told Gulf News that the men managed to break open 18 of the 19 prison wards for the other prisoners to join them. They then escaped through the roof of the prison after resisting attempts by prison guards to stop them.
Water hoses were used against the men, a number of whom were rounded up successfully. But many still managed to escape.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Interior Minister announced yesterday that police had arrested 210 drug traffickers and dealers, collecting more than SR330 million (Dh323.19 million)’s worth of drugs in the period from June 13 to September 9.
The ministry said those arrested included: 113 Saudis, 31 Pakistanis, 21 Yemenis, 18 Syrians, 11 Filipinos, five Egyptians, three Indians, three Ethiopians, two Eritreans, a Sudanese, a Kuwaiti and a Jordanian.
A spokesman for the ministry Major General Mansour Al Turki said the traffickers resisted security forces in 18 of the operations, killing three security men and injuring three others. He also said that two of them were killed and four others injured, while a drug user died when he swallowed a plastic bag containing 2.6 grams of Hashish.
The spokesman said 17 drug smuggling attempts, which amassed quantities of nine million keptagon tablets, a ton of Hashish and 5.5 kilogrammes of heroine in total, were foiled. He did not disclose when and where these attempts took place however.
