Manhunt launched after Chinese jailbreak

Police have launched a massive manhunt for four inmates who killed a guard and escaped from a northern Chinese prison over the weekend.

The four, all serving life sentences, fled Hohhot’s No. 2 Prison in a stolen taxi on Saturday.

Reports in the official China Daily newspaper said a second guard was also injured in the escape.

More than 6,000 police and security officers have been deployed in the search for the men, who are believed to be hiding in Hohhot, the paper said. Authorities have set up more than 150 roadblocks in and around the city.

After the four killed the guard, one of them dressed in his uniform and led the others to the prison’s main gate, where they were stopped by another guard, according to a spokesman.

“That police officer realised that he had not seen this ’officer’ before and therefore questioned his identity. The four men attacked him with a knife and then fled,” said the official.

The inmates hijacked a passing taxi and then commandeered a second one when the first ran out of fuel.

Another newspaper, the Global Times, said nine people working in the jail were found to be criminally liable for the prison break, citing a report in the official newspaper of the state prosecutor’s office.