Indonesian prison authorities warned dozens of inmates who escaped during the massive quake that they will be shot if they resist arrest. In Aceh province, where 170,000 people were killed in a 2004 tsunami, prisons evacuated inmates Wednesday during an 8.6-magnitude earthquake which jolted Sumatra island and triggered an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami alert. Twenty-nine inmates from Sigli Prison, 50 kilometers from the provincial capital Banda Aceh, made a getaway and are still on the loose as of Friday afternoon.
"We are giving the prisoners a deadline of this evening to return. If we find them and they try to flee, the guards and police are allowed to shoot," warden Djoko Budi Setianto said.
Guards at the prison, near the coast, evacuated all 221 inmates during the hours-long alert. "The two guards who opened the gates to let the prisoners out on Wednesday were caught in the 2004 tsunami, but they survived. They are still traumatized by it," Setianto said, adding there was little damage to the prison from the latest quake.
The prison originally sat just metres from the coastline, but was completely destroyed by the 2004 wave, which killed 350 of the 400 inmates trapped in the building as it filled with water and collapsed. It has been rebuilt around five kilometers inland.
People who had heard false reports that the prison had been destroyed in the April 2012 earthquake came to search for their loved ones Thursday. "At least 150 family members came to the prison. When they found their loved ones they were so relieved they hugged one another and cried." - AFP
