ARCAHAIE, Haiti (AP) — Police officers were searching cars and boats for escaped prisoners on Sunday after recapturing at least a dozen of the 172 inmates who overpowered guards and escaped from a lockup in central Haiti, the prison’s director said. Haiti’s Minister Of Justice, Camille Edouard Junior, said one prisoner died after falling off a wall and hitting his head during the escape from the Arcahaie prison on the coast north of capital Port-au-Prince. “One guard was killed during the incident,” Edouard Junior told Reuters. Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles said the interim government has given clear instructions to the justice minister to “take all necessary measures to remedy this unacceptable situation.”

Judge Henry Claude Louis-Jean said Saturday that the escapees stole an unknown number of weapons and some exchanged gunfire with police during the chaotic breakout. The inmates attacked after they were released from a crammed holding pen to bathe, according to provincial authorities. Haitian prisons are notoriously overcrowded and many inmates spend years in pre-trial detention. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the escaped inmates in Arcahaie were convicted of serious crimes and how many were awaiting trial. Police asked jittery residents of the coastal area to follow authorities’ instructions as a manhunt intensified. The U.S. embassy in Haiti issued a security message about “a violent prison break in Arcahaie,” and advised its citizens to avoid the area.
At least 174 inmates escape in Arcahaie, Haiti, leaving one guard dead. Authorities seek the fugitives with support from UN peacekeepers.