LOC10:13
07:13 GMT
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (KUNA) -- Indonesian authorities were hunting for more than 250 inmates who escaped a Papua prison set ablaze during violent riots, Police announced Wednesday.
The prison break took place Monday as several cities in Indonesia's easternmost territory -- where an insurgency against Jakarta's rule has simmered for decades -- saw rioting and protests triggered by the detention of dozens of Papuan students.
About half of a 500-inmate prison in Sorong city fled their cells when the prison was set ablaze by angry protestors Monday, according to authorities.
Ade Kusmanto, a spokesman for the director-general of correctional facilities said in a statement today that the protestors set the government office ablaze in Sorong and headed to the prison to instigate the inmates.
He added that the prison''s guard was injured in the riot that was instigated by the protestors, adding that some 258 inmates managed to flee their cells.
A number of them have been arrested, he noted.
Sorong, a city of some 220,000 people, was hit by mass protests on Monday while in Manokwari, the capital of West Papua province, chaos broke out with the local parliament building torched and nearly reduced to ashes.(end).
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