Manama: Bahraini authorities have launched a massive manhunt to recapture nine detainees who escaped as they were being driven from a detention centre to a court to face trial. Eight of the inmates were reportedly held in connection with a homemade bomb explosion in the village of Al Ekr and the ninth was detained in a criminal case.
Security checkpoints were set up on the three causeways linking the northern island of Muharraq where the detention centre is located with mainland Bahrain to track down the fugitives. The operation caused traffic jams that lasted more than two hours. Police authorities also launched a probe to determine how the men were able to escape.
“Nine people detained pending trial at the Dry Dock Detention Centre escaped,” the head of the Reformation and Rehabilitation Directorate said. “Police have launched a search to arrest them and to subsequently take legal action against them. An internal investigation has also been launched into what happened.”
In the latest attempt by inmates to escape from the Hidd Dry Dock detention centre, two of the four people who fled were re-arrested on the same day.
