One prison officer was injured in the jailbreak, which occurred early in the morning when a group of prisoners commandeered a garbage truck to ram the prison gate and escape, said Kayin Police Chief Aung Myint Moe.

He said the escapees headed for the Hpa-an-Hlaingbwe highway.

“Forty-one escaped, but 11 have been rearrested. The police are conducting a manhunt,” he said.

Khin Mg Win, deputy director of Hpa-an jail, said a tribunal has been formed to determine what action to take against those prisoners who have been recaptured.

“More details will be released by the head of the Prison Department,” he added.

A lot of individual prisoners have tried to escape from Hpa-an jail, but this is the first mass jailbreak, Khin Mg Win said.</s>Myanmar police says escaped inmates hijacked a delivery truck and smashed through the gates of their jail

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar police are hunting dozens of escaped inmates who hijacked a delivery truck and smashed through the gates of their jail in a daring prison break on Sunday, September 16, officials said.

The escape occurred on Sunday morning as prisoners seized a truck that had entered Hpa-An prison in eastern Karen state.

"They attacked a prison officer, wounding him, and drove the truck out off the prison," local official Khin Thet Mar told Agence France-Presse.

Citing conflicting reports from police and prison officers, she said the truck had either gone in to drop off sand and stone for construction, or to take out garbage from the facility.

The inmates drove through the prison gates, she said.

Khin Thet Mar warned locals to contact authorities if strangers appeared in their villages.

Photos showed one side of a large prison gate wrenched off its hinges by the force of the truck crashing through it.

Forty-one prisoners escaped, according to state police chief Aung Myat Moe, but 3 have been recaptured while the hunt intensifies for the rest.

Archive photographs of the prison, which holds around 2,000 prisoners, shows a large sign in English on the outside reading "Kind but Firm." – Rappler.com</s>Kayin State government Ethnic Myanmar Affairs Minister Tayza has confirmed to Mizzima that three jail breakers had been rearrested out of 41 convicts who escaped from Hpa-an prison in Kayin State.

“Just 3 have been rearrested while others are still at large but they will certainly be rearrested. They must be around this area. We have already blocked their escape routes. Staff from the departments concerned have blocked all bridges and roads,” he said.

The escape occurred on Sunday morning as prisoners seized a truck that had entered the prison.

"They attacked a prison officer, wounding him, and drove the truck out of the prison," local official Khin Thet Mar told AFP.

Citing conflicting reports from police and prison officers, she said the truck had either gone in to drop off sand and stone for construction, or to take out garbage from the facility.

The inmates drove through the prison gates, she said.

Khin Thet Mar warned locals to contact authorities if strangers appeared in their villages.

Photos showed one side of a large prison gate wrenched off its hinges by the force of the truck crashing through it.

The escaped convicts fled to Hlaingbwe Township via the Hpa-an-Hlaingbwe highway and Myanmar Police Force and local military units are jointly searching the area.</s>YANGON: Myanmar police are hunting dozens of escaped inmates who hijacked a delivery truck and smashed through the gates of their jail in a daring prison break on Sunday, officials said. The escape occurred on Sunday morning as prisoners seized a truck that had entered Hpa-An prison in eastern Karen state. “They attacked a prison officer, wounding him, and drove the truck out off the prison,” local official Khin Thet Mar told AFP. Citing conflicting reports from police and prison officers, she said the truck had either gone in to drop off sand and stone for construction, or to take out garbage from the facility. The inmates drove through the prison gates, she said. Khin Thet Mar warned locals to contact authorities if strangers appeared in their villages.</s>The escape occurred on Sunday morning as prisoners seized a truck that had entered Hpa-An prison in eastern Karen state.

“They attacked a prison officer, wounding him, and drove the truck out off the prison,” local official Khin Thet Mar told AFP.

Citing conflicting reports from police and prison officers, she said the truck had either gone in to drop off sand and stone for construction, or to take out garbage from the facility.

The inmates drove through the prison gates, she said.

Khin Thet Mar warned locals to contact authorities if strangers appeared in their villages.

Photos showed one side of a large prison gate wrenched off its hinges by the force of the truck crashing through it.

Forty-one prisoners escaped, according to state police chief Aung Myat Moe, but three have been recaptured while the hunt intensifies for the rest.

Archive photographs of the prison, which holds around 2,000 prisoners, shows a large sign in English on the outside reading “Kind but Firm”.</s>Yangon, Sep 17 (IANS) Some 40 prisoners broke a jail in Hpa-an township, Myanmar’s Kayin state, and escaped on Sunday, an official from Kayin State Prison Department told Xinhua.

The inmates took a car of a prison officer and fled the jail by breaking through the gates at 8:45 a.m.

One prison officer was injured and some prisoners fleeing the jail were caught at the scene.

An investigation is underway by the regional authorities.</s>More than 30 inmates on the run after a Myanmar jailbreak may try to cross into Thailand, an official said Monday, a day after they hijacked a garbage truck and ploughed through the prison gates.

The fugitives broke out of Hpa-An jail in the country's eastern Karen state -- which borders Thailand -- on Sunday morning.

State media said 10 of the 41 escapees had been recaptured while police are scouring nearby villages for those still at large.

The jailbreak has left villagers near the prison scared, local official Khin Thet Mar told AFP.

"(The escaped prisoners) don't have anything to eat or money to use so people think they might threaten them to get what they need," she said.

"They might have fled to Thailand but the authorities here are trying to recapture them by blocking possible escape routes."

The prisoners escaped after pulling the driver down from a garbage truck and then crashing through the gates, leaving them wrenched off their hinges.

The getaway vehicle was found later on Sunday stuck in the mud some 200 kilometres away by road towards the Thai border, said state-run paper The Global New Light of Myanmar.

The report said the ringleader was serving a life prison term without parole for "drug trafficking, illegal possession of arms and attempted murder".

In total, 29 of the 41 prisoners had been sentenced while 12 were still facing trial, Khin Thet Mar confirmed.

Archive photographs of the prison, which holds around 2,000 prisoners, showed a large sign in English on the outside reading "Kind but Firm".
Forty-one inmates escape from Hpa-an Township's main prison in Kayin State, Myanmar, after hijacking a garbage truck and driving it through the prison gates. Eleven of the escapees are apprehended by police, but 30 remain at large.