One Dead, Several Injured in Ghana Prison Break Attempt

One person has been confirmed dead while several have been injured in a prison break attempt in the Ashanti Region of Ghana on Wednesday night. The incident happened in the city of Kumasi which is one of the biggest prisons in the country that houses inmates. Details of the incident were not clear until Thursday when prison officials said inmates wanted to take an advantage of an evacuation exercise in the prison. There was fire outbreak at the prison and officials tried to move some of the inmates to a safe place. But inmates clashed with prison officers, trying to break jail but were overpowered. Some inmates reportedly hurled bricks and other dangerous objects at prison officials.

Spokesperson for the Kumasi Central Prison, ASP Annan said the one who died was shot by a prison officer as he tried to snatch a gun from another officer. He said several inmates and prison officers were injured and are currently receiving medical treatment at the city’s hospital. "One of the prisoners on remand in the heat of the confusion tried to snatch a weapon from a policeman. Another officer looking on shot the prisoner and he died in the process, the number of Police officers who got injured were more than four but the serious ones are about four and they are being treated at the hospital", he said.

DSP Annan added that order has been restored with the help of reinforcement from the regional security headquarters. "The situation is calm. We got help from headquarters to join our force to bring the situation under control, nobody should panic", DSP Annan added. Prison break is uncommon in Ghana and authorities say investigation into the incident has been initiated to prevent such occurrences in the future.