Over 200 inmates escape from prison following heavy flooding in Nigeria

At least 274 inmates have escaped from a prison in Nigeria’s Borno state following heavy flooding, the Nigerian Correctional Service said on September 15, Report informs referring to CNN.

“The flood brought down the walls of the correctional facilities, including the medium security custodial center Maiduguri (MSCC) as well as the staff quarters in the city,” the service spokesman Abubakar Umar said in a statement.

According to Umar, at least 281 inmates managed to escape while they were being transferred to “a safe and secure facility” and seven of them were recaptured later.

Umar said that the service was aware of escapees’ identities, including their biometrics, and had made this information “available to the public.”

The search for the inmates was ongoing, he said.

Weeks of flooding across Nigeria have led to 229 deaths and displaced more than 386,000 people, according to the latest data from the country’s disaster management agency NEMA, shared with CNN.