CROIX-DES-BOUQUETS, Haiti (AP) – A prison director was among at least eight people killed Thursday after several inmates tried to escape from a prison in the Haitian capital, a police officer and witnesses said.
The incident took place northeast of Port-au-Prince in the Croix-des-Bouquets civil prison, which was built by Canada in 2012 and is known for a 2014 outbreak in which more than 300 inmates.
Residents in the area who declined to be identified out of concern for their safety told The Associated Press that they observed a group of heavily armed men begin firing on prison guards before inmates began fleeing.
Shots could still be heard from the jail several hours after the shooting began.
The police officer who confirmed the murder of the prison director in the AP and declined to be identified because he was not allowed to speak to the media, said authorities were preparing to attack the prison and described the prisoners as armed and dangerous.
At the time of the 2014 outbreak, the prison had 899 inmates, about 130 over its capacity.
During Thursday’s incident, a fugitive, 37-year-old Jhon Hippolyte, was shot in the back. He told the AP he was serving a murder sentence and was in the infirmary when he realized everyone was running and decided to join him.
AP reporters saw the bodies of at least seven men along the streets near the jail. They had been shot. Their identities were not immediately available and it was unclear if they were internal or who had killed them.
The video captured by the residents shows a police officer leading a group of men tied with a rope. It was not immediately clear if they were internal.
Authorities could not be contacted immediately for comment.