About 25 unidentified gunmen stormed a provincial prison in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato early Friday, freeing at least 47 inmates, including five high profile criminals, police said.
Senior Superintendent Federico Dulay, Philippine National Police (PNP) Cotabato provincial director, said armed men destroyed the fence and bore a hole in the detention cells to spring the inmates.
Dulay identified the five high profiled criminals as Teng Bajudin, Faisal Mama, Tahir Mundos, Datu Ali Sultan and Mohammad Nur Hassan, who were involved in kidnapping and bombings, and the other escapees were a mix of common criminals.
Accdording to Dulay, the jail breakers armed with automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers raided the provincial prison at around 1:00 a.m.
There was no immediate report of casualty in the incident, but initial radio reports based in Cotabato City said the gunmen fired their RPG launchers at the provincial jail.
There are about 780 inmates inside the Kidapawan provincial jail. Most of them Muslims and suspected insurgents.
It was not the first time militants targeted a jail in Central Mindanao. In December last year, three men, armed with assault weapons, stormed the provincial prison in Maguindanao and sprang a suspected bomber of the Awang airport near Cotabato City in 2003. (HG)
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