(COLOMBO) – More than 60 inmates broke out from a Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre at Kandakadu in north central Sri Lanka on Friday, officials said on Saturday.
They said the inmates, mainly drug addicts made their escape following a clash between two rival groups inside the facility.
The army and police have currently launched a massive search operation in a bid to recapture the escapees.
Kandakadu situated in the outskirts of Anuradhapura is a State holding facility for hundreds of inmates, mainly drug dependents and the present numbers have swelled owing to the ongoing police ‘Yukthi’ operation, where some 30,000 people have already been arrested.
It was only before Christmas last year that some 300 inmates escaped from the facility after overpowering the guards. The bulk of them were however re-arrested inside a period of 72 hours.
There have been several more breakouts in the past, but most of the inmates were subsequently arrested or had turned themselves in owing to their poor health conditions.
