Seventeen prisoners have been killed in the Papua New Guinean provincial city of Lae after more than 70 inmates escaped from the Buimo jail in a mass breakout.
Police said in a statement there were "17 now deceased at the Angau (Memorial Hospital) morgue" and local media are reporting they were shot during the breakout on Friday.
Lae police metropolitan commander chief superintendent Anthony Wagambie Jnr warned residents that 57 "dangerous individuals" are still on the run and three have been recaptured.
There was no further information in the statement about how the 17 people died.
Buimo jail commander Felix Nomane has reportedly refused to comment to local media.
“Details of how the escape happened will be released by CS Management,” chief superintendent Wagambie said.
“The majority of those that escaped were arrested for serious crimes and were in custody awaiting trial.
“A good number were arrested by police last year for mainly armed robberies, car thefts, break and enter stealing.
“These are undesirable people and will be a threat to the community.
“I also call on family members and close associates of those that escaped, not to harbour them, but to encourage them to surrender to police.”
Local NGOs and Amnesty International have previously called on the PNG government to hold an wide ranging inquiry into prison escapes and conditions.
In January EMTV reported Buimo, one of the largest prisons in the country, was designed to hold 400 detainees but held 384 convicts and 476 people on remand, citing Commander Nomane.
In February last year, 12 prisoners were shot dead and 18 wounded when 94 escaped from the troubled Buimo prison.
Some 55 men escaped from the prison in one breakout in 2015 and two years earlier one detainee was shot dead when 44 fled in another mass escape.
EMTV reports previous PNG inquires have found overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions and long remand periods have sparked mass breakouts but there have been few improvements due to lack of government funds.
The US State Department in its Country Report on Human Rights for PNG in March this year highlighted prison conditions as a major concern.
“Despite minor physical improvements and increased capacity, prison conditions remained poor, and the prison system continued to suffer from serious under-funding, inadequate medical facilities, and overcrowding in some facilities,” the US government report said.
“The country’s prisons were designed to accommodate 4,166 inmates, but as of October (2016) they held 4,945 inmates.”
The report cites claims some pre-trial detainees who escaped in February last year had been waiting up to nine years to face trial.
“The government mandated the Ombudsman Commission to visit prisons, but the commission lacked adequate resources to effectively monitor and investigate prison conditions,” the report said.
In February this year, prisoners at the Baisu jail in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands Province, went without food for at least five days because of non-payment of bills by Correctional Services.
