Image copyright AFP Image caption Soldiers arrested eight members of the Maute group last week

Eight suspected militants linked to so-called Islamic State (IS) have been freed from jail in the Philippines in an apparently "staged raid".

Police said at least 20 fighters from the Maute group had turned up at the Lanao del Sur jail in the southern city of Marawi, but no shots had been fired.

A military source told the BBC they believed the men had been allowed to escape.

The militants were held last week after being caught with homemade mortars.

At least 15 other inmates - who faced murder and drugs charges - also walked free, but it is not clear whether this was agreed.

The Maute group has carried out several bombings and kidnappings in the southern Mindanao region.

The Philippines has faced Muslim separatist movements for decades in Mindanao, which has a significant Muslim population - the Philippines is mainly Catholic.

The Maute group carries the black flag and insignia of IS, and has attacked army troops, beheaded a soldier and beheaded two local workers earlier this year.

The militants kidnapped the two workers and made them wear orange shirts similar to those worn by IS beheading victims before they were killed.

Several armed groups in the Philippines have pledged allegiance to IS, although the country's military says there is no evidence of active co-operation with foreign militants.</s>Islamic extremists supporting Isis freed eight fellow militants in an attack that also allowed 15 other inmates to escape from a provincial jail in the southern Philippines, police said on Sunday.

About 20 heavily-armed fighters of the Maute militant group stormed the Lanao del Sur provincial jail in Marawi city before nightfall on Saturday, disarmed the guards and rescued their eight comrades. The attackers also seized two rifles from guards, police said.

The eight who escaped were arrested a week ago when they were caught with a homemade bomb in van at a security checkpoint.

The others who escaped, apparently to divert the attention of authorities, were facing murder and illegal drugs charges.

The Maute group is a new band of armed Muslim radicals, who have pledged allegiance to Isis and use black flags with logos of the Middle East-based extremists.

Based in Lanao del Sur’s Butig town, the militants have attacked army troops and beheaded a soldier and two kidnapped workers earlier this year. Before being killed, the two workers were made to wear orange shirts similar to beheading victims of Isis.

A number of Muslim armed groups in the country’s south, including some commanders of the violent Abu Sayyaf, have pledged loyalty to Isis. The military has tried to play down their action, saying there has been no evidence of an active collaboration between the foreign extremists and Filipino militants who are aiming to prop up their image and secure badly-needed funds amid years of battle setbacks.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who was sworn in in June, has pursued peace deals with two large Muslim rebel groups but has ordered troops to destroy the Abu Sayyaf and other militants.</s>CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (AP) — Muslim extremists supporting the Islamic State group have freed eight fellow militants in a daring attack that also allowed 15 other inmates to escape from a provincial jail in the southern Philippines.

Police say about 20 heavily-armed fighters of the Maute militant group stormed the Lanao del Sur provincial jail in Marawi city before nightfall Saturday, disarmed the guards and rescued their eight comrades, including three women. The attackers also seized two rifles from guards.

Police said Sunday the eight militants were arrested by army troops and police when they were caught with a homemade mortar shell in a van in Lanao del Sur's Lumbayanague town.

The Maute group is a new band of armed Muslim radicals, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.</s>The jailbreak is just the latest mass escape from poorly secured Philippine jails with the incidents often involving Muslim extremists.

Muslim extremists carrying Islamic State group insignia have staged a daring jailbreak in the southern Philippines, freeing 28 detainees in the latest in a series of mass escapes, officials said Sunday.

About 50 heavily armed members of the Maute group raided the local jail in the southern city of Marawi on Saturday, freeing eight comrades who had been arrested barely a week ago, police said.

Twenty other detainees, held for other offences, also escaped in the raid, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Agustine Tello said.

The freed members of the Maute group were arrested on August 22 after soldiers manning an army checkpoint found improvised bombs and pistols in the van they were driving.

The Maute group is one of several Muslim gangs in the southern region of Mindanao, the ancestral homeland of the Muslim minority in the largely Catholic Philippines.

The group has carried out kidnappings and bombings and is believed to have led an attack on an army outpost in the Mindanao town of Butig in February.

The fighting there lasted a week, leaving numerous fatalities and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes as helicopter gunships fought off the attackers.

The gunmen attacking the jail Saturday were seen carrying black flags of the Islamic State group, and bandanas bearing the jihadists' insignia were later found in their base, the military said.

Authorities said they were investigating why the jail's guards did not resist the raid or why security had not been increased after high-risk suspects were brought in.

The jailbreak is just the latest mass escape from poorly secured Philippine jails, with the incidents often involving Muslim extremists.

In 2009, more than 100 armed men raided a jail in the strife-torn southern island of Basilan, freeing 31 prisoners, including several Muslim guerrillas. © AFP, 2016</s>Metro Manila, Philippines (CNN) In an unassuming Quezon City neighborhood, across from a municipal library and around the corner from a police station stands the local jail.

A short ride from Manila -- depending on traffic -- the jail isn't an imposing building, or even a particularly large one. Its total floor area is a shade over 30,000 square feet.

More than 4,000 inmates -- and counting -- live cheek by jowl in what has to be one of the most densely populated corners of the Philippines.

With thousands of arrests made since the beginning of June in the war on drugs, the population of inmates keeps growing.

With thousands of arrests made since the beginning of June in the war on drugs, the population of inmates keeps growing.

At the beginning of the year, just under 3,600 were incarcerated. In the seven weeks since President Duterte took office, that number has risen to 4,053.

At the beginning of the year, just under 3,600 were incarcerated. In the seven weeks since President Duterte took office, that number has risen to 4,053.

Many inmates could go home but can't afford the bail, which can be as low as 4,000 to 6,000 pesos ($86 to $129).

Many inmates could go home but can't afford the bail, which can be as low as 4,000 to 6,000 pesos ($86 to $129).

A rigorous search of those coming in keeps the amount of contraband to a minimum, says the jail's senior inspector. But it's still a jail, he shrugs, suggesting that drugs and other illegal goods do find their way in.

A rigorous search of those coming in keeps the amount of contraband to a minimum, says the jail's senior inspector. But it's still a jail, he shrugs, suggesting that drugs and other illegal goods do find their way in.

"The food is terrible," says one inmate. "And it's hard to find a space to sleep, especially when it rains."

"The food is terrible," says one inmate. "And it's hard to find a space to sleep, especially when it rains."

Critics say this overcrowding is a predictable effect of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

Critics say this overcrowding is a predictable effect of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

It's always been packed, guards say, but recently the number of inmates has spiked.

It's always been packed, guards say, but recently the number of inmates has spiked.

Inmate Ramon Go, who acts as "mayor" for some of the jail's dorms, has been incarcerated for 16 years. He's currently awaiting the verdict of his murder trial, which happened two and a half years ago.

Inmate Ramon Go, who acts as "mayor" for some of the jail's dorms, has been incarcerated for 16 years. He's currently awaiting the verdict of his murder trial, which happened two and a half years ago.

Originally built in 1953, the country's jail authority suggests it is safe for 800 inmates -- a shade of its current numbers. By U.N. standards, it is fit for 200 inmates.

Originally built in 1953, the country's jail authority suggests it is safe for 800 inmates -- a shade of its current numbers. By U.N. standards, it is fit for 200 inmates.

Quezon City jail, just outside the capital Manila, is home to over 4,000 inmates.

Quezon City jail, just outside the capital Manila, is home to over 4,000 inmates.

It's always been packed, guards say, but recently the number of inmates has spiked.

Conditions inside are astounding. Every available space is crammed with yellow T-shirted humanity. The men here -- and almost 60% are in for drug offenses -- spend the days sitting, squatting and standing in the unrelenting, suffocating Manila heat.

Their numbers are climbing relentlessly. At the beginning of the year, a little under 3,600 were incarcerated.

In the seven weeks since Duterte took office and charged his No. 1 cop, Ronald Dela Rosa, with cleaning up the country, that number has risen to 4,053.

The Quezon City Jail was built in 1953, originally to house 800 people, according to the country's Bureau of Jail Management and Penology standards. The United Nations says it should house no more than 278.

There are only 20 guards assigned to the mass of incarcerated men, some of whom have been living behind these walls for years without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom.

Dela Rosa earlier told CNN that the criminals in the jails and prisons would just have to squeeze in, gesturing by pulling in his shoulders and arms.

Inmates are woken at 5 a.m. before undergoing a head count -- no easy task when you have 4,000-plus men crammed into crumbling, ramshackle cells.

'Safer in here than out on the streets'

Alex Beltran, a 29-year-old temp worker, has been here for a month and blames Duterte's crackdown for his imprisonment. "The food is terrible," he says. "And it's hard to find a space to sleep, especially when it rains."

Life inside is "harder for the new guys," he says. Fellow inmate Romeo Payhoi, 38, is another newcomer, and while he says he was scared coming in, it hasn't been as bad as he anticipated, just cramped and lacking any privacy.

At any rate, he adds, he feels "safer in here than out on the streets," where "the cops could kill you."

Many who come into the system are already affiliated with gangs, like Sique-sique Sputnik (935 members incarcerated in the jail), Commando (386), Bahala Na gang (874) and Batang City Jail (740).

Around a quarter of those inside the jail have no affiliation.

These gangs hold considerable sway inside, and each run sections to which their members naturally gravitate. Colorful murals on the walls proclaim territory, although guards say that out of sheer necessity there is a de facto truce between the groups.

Many inmates could go home but can't afford the bail, which can be as low as 4,000 to 6,000 pesos ($86 to $129), according to Joey Doguiles, the jail's senior inspector and chief of operations. A top police chief, when asked what officials did to prepare for the crackdown, said the threat from drugs was so great that there was no time to expand the facility. That would have to come later.

Outside the jail as many as 700 relatives of inmates wait patiently in the still morning air to go in to see their brothers, husbands and sons. They'll be waiting for hours before adding to the crush inside -- one guard says that there isn't a specific visiting room; visitors mingle with prisoners, marked with ink stamp to denote their freedom.

A rigorous search of those coming from the outside keeps the amount of contraband to a minimum, Doguiles says. But it's still a jail, he shrugs, suggesting that drugs and other illegal goods do find their way in. The main drug here -- as it is across the Philippines -- is shabu, the local name for meth.

Bunks stacked at least three high

Inside the dormitories -- affectionately called barangays, a Filipino name for neighborhoods -- the men are left to their own devices to find somewhere to sleep. Towels, threadbare curtains and even chipped plywood boards are put up to maintain some semblance of privacy, but it's impossible in such a cramped space.

In one room there are 85 inmates in a 200-square foot space. Another one, bigger but not by much, holds 131. It's designed for 30.

Bunks are stacked at least three high, and inmates have even crawled under these rickety structures to find a sleeping spot. One sleeps, cocooned, in a hammock suspended from the ceiling.

And they don't even have the comfort of knowing that this is a temporary situation. The court system here works at a snail's pace.

Ameena-Tara Jance visits six days a week to see her husband, who's been here for six years and counting.

He's recovering from a mild stroke, and she says that in the heat some have been known to keel over and die. Her husband is due for another hearing in October, but they both feel there's no end in sight. "There's no justice," she says.

The "mayor" of the second-floor dorms, Ramon Go -- an inmate responsible for marshaling and supervising around 900 of his fellow prisoners -- has been there for 16 years.

He's one of the few who's had his trial -- on murder charges -- after a police raid led to a cop's shooting death. He was tried 2½ years ago -- after almost a decade and a half of waiting -- and is still stuck inside the walls of the jail in Quezon City, waiting for the verdict to come in.

With thousands of arrests made since the beginning of June in the war on drugs, the population of inmates keeps growing.

It's an endless wait, made keener by the fact that the inmates can't know when they might regain their freedom. So they wait, watching daily as more caught up in the crackdown are processed and attempt to eke out a space, and a life, in a jail already breaking at the seams.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants break free supporters from a Marawi jail in the Philippines.