Haiti: 11 killed in foiled prison break

Ten inmates and a police officer were killed during an attempt to escape from a Haitian prison, police said Monday.

"The toll that we have is eleven dead, including a police officer," police spokesman Gary Desrosiers told AFP of the incident which took place Friday at Croix-des-Bouquets, just outside the Haitian capital.

Three more police officers were seriously injured and will need to be medically evacuated to Cuba, he added.

The incident began at midday Friday, when an unknown number of inmates, who had firearms, tried to break out of the country's second largest prison.

The inmates took three police officers and a nurse hostage, according to Desrosiers.

While moving deeper into the high security establishment, these individuals seized three additional weapons including an assault rifle stored in an office.

Special police reinforcements that were called in exchanged fire with the inmates.

As a result, four weapons illegally introduced into the prison were recovered as well as the three from the guards' arsenal.

In February 2021, more than 400 inmates escaped from the same prison in broad daylight, an event that resulted in the deaths of 25 people, including the jail's director.