[SodeSceriobia]

May 18, 2010

Mass breakout at Viet camp

HANOI - NEARLY 600 inmates in a Vietnamese drug rehabilitation camp overpowered security guards and escaped, an official said yesterday. At least two-thirds of them are still at large. Mr Trinh Vuong Thuan, a security official at rehabilitation centre No. 2 in the northern port city of Haiphong, said 578 inmates overpowered security guards to break through the centre's gates on Sunday. Vietnam's strict laws on drugs allow the government to order addicts to be held for up to two years in rehabilitation centres, many of which are boot camp-style facilities that include hard labour and communist 'ideological education'.

The uprising and escape started when an inmate called on others to flee while they were having dinner, he said. 'We were completely overwhelmed,' Mr Thuan said. 'Forty of us were not able to prevent them, many with canes and bricks, from escaping.' He said the inmates smashed the windshields of several cars, including a police car, along their way to nearby Kien An District. About 120 inmates returned to the centre later on Sunday night, while three others were recaptured yesterday morning. Police are looking for the rest of the inmates. -- AP