Officials at Boksburg prison, assisted by inmates, foiled an attempted escape by four awaiting-trial prisoners armed with guns and cellphones on Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Correctional Services said.
The four were in a reception area at the front of the prison with five warders and two sentenced prisoners when they produced two guns and two cellphones, the department’s Gauteng representative Isaac Mosiane told Sapa.
The four locked the warders and the other prisoners in a caged area, ordered them to lie down on the floor and fired three shots at them.
They escapees took a set of car keys from one of the warders and proceeded to the main gate. As they fled, they were spotted from the windows by other inmates who alerted the head of the prison. The alarm was sounded and prison staff gave chase to the escapees, Mosiane said.
In an ensuing gun battle between the escapees and officials just outside the prison gates, one of the prisoners was shot and wounded.
He later died in Boksburg’s Oliver Tambo hospital. His name could not be released because his next of kin had not yet been notified, Mosiane said. No one else was hurt during the incident.
The other three escapees were recaptured and they were in custody by the time members of the SA Police Service arrived at the prison.
The four men were already being held on various charges including robbery and possession of unlicensed firearms. Mosiane said the department’s acting Gauteng provincial commissioner Lazarus Ncongwane had ordered a probe into the attempted escape and how the prisoners managed to get hold of guns and cellphones — both prohibited in prison. – Sapa