Kidapawan: More than 150 inmates of a southern Philippine jail escaped when suspected militants stormed the dilapidated facility in a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday, killing one guard, authorities said.
The attack added to a long history of daring jailbreaks in the strife-torn south, home to a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency as well as extremist gangs that have recently declared allegiance to the Daesh (the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Isil/Isis) group.
A two-hour long firefight broke out when more than 100 armed men believed to have been led by a local rebel commander attacked the jail in Kidapawan city at about 1:00am, jail authorities said.
"It's to rescue their comrades under our custody. It is a rescue operation," jail warden Peter John Bonggat told local ABS-CBN television.
Bongat 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.
The city is in Cotabato Province in southern Philippines.
Jailbreak
At least 158 prisoners had escaped, Bonggat told AFP, although it was unclear how many of those were linked to the attackers or were just other inmates who took advantage of the chaos.
"The (inmates) took chances because of the volume of fire... they used their bedding, piled them on top of each other to escape," Bonggat said.
Bonggat said the jail, which housed 1,511 inmates, lacked guards and was a dilapidated former school building located in a forested, secluded area.
Three inmates facing charges of illegal possession of explosives and drugs escaped from the jail last year.
Kidapawan, 950 kilometres (590 miles) south of Manila, is home to various Muslim rebel groups, criminal gangs and communist insurgents.
"We have many Muslim personalities (in the jail) that are members of various organised, syndicated groups," Bonggat told AFP.
Security forces pursued the assailants and the escapees throughout Wednesday morning, with local authorities reporting up to six had been killed in the hunt.
MILF spokesman Von al-Haq told AFP the group did not know who the attackers were and was contacting its members to get more information.
The southern region of Mindanao has been plagued by a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency as well as a number of criminal gangs, some of whom have pledged allegiance to Daesh, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters.
A two-hour long firefight broke out when more than 100 armed men attacked the jail in North Cotabato, overwhelming prison guards and giving inmates an opportunity to escape.
Military and police officials would not immediately confirm the identity of the attackers or the motive for the jail break, but have launched an operation to catch both the escapees and the assailants.
Both the Mindanao-based Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Abu Sayyaf rebels pledged support to Daesh.
Mindanao is the ancestral homeland of the Muslim minority in the largely Catholic Philippines.
Several prison breaks have previously occurred in the region, with pro-Daesh extremists freeing 23 detainees in a series of escapes last year.
Recaptured
Kidapawan police chief Superintendent Leo Ajero said two prisoners of those who escaped had been recaptured, and army troops and police were searching for the others.
The jail held more than 1,500 inmates.
Local village leader Alexander Austria told The Associated Press by telephone that he and his men captured one of the men.
He said the exchanges of gunfire woke his village, which was several kilometres from the prison, and he immediately posted guards because of worries the attackers and escaped inmates could enter the village.
“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.”
The MILF has about 10,000 armed followers, but they have been observing a ceasefire with the government as part of the peace efforts.
The southern region of Mindanao is the ancestral homeland of the Muslim minority in the largely Catholic Philippines.
More than 120,000 people have been killed in the four-decade armed rebellion.
