30 inmates break out of Yemen prison

About 30 inmates escaped from a Yemeni prison after a guard threw a hand grenade to disperse a protest at the facility, officials said.

The activists, from the country’s south, escaped amid a melee that erupted when the grenade exploded today in the prison in the southern town of Dalaa, the officials said.

They say four inmates were wounded in the blast. It was not immediately clear what the protest was about.

Southerners in Yemen complain of neglect and discrimination by the north. The two parts of the country were separate nations before they united in 1990.

Tensions recently increased in the south, adding to Yemen’s troubles with an al-Qaida movement and a northern rebellion.