Official: 240 inmates missing after Nigeria prison break

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in Nigeria say 240 inmates have escaped in the country’s second prison break this year. Interior minister Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said Monday that the gunmen had used explosives to destroy three sides of the perimeter fence at the correctional facility in north central Nigeria. The attackers then started a fierce gun battle with security forces at the scene. A soldier and a police officer were killed, and two other people remained missing. Authorities do not believe the two jail breaks this year are connected, though, as the attack in April was blamed on pro-Biafra secessionists in the country’s southeast.