Ten Uighur men escaped from a detention centre of Nong Khai provincial immigration office on early Tuesday morning but were re-captured in the afternoon.
20 Sep 2016 at 20:39
Ten Uighur men escaped from a detention centre of Nong Khai provincial immigration office on early Tuesday morning but were re-captured in the afternoon.
The men escaped through the roof of the two-storey facility at about 1am when there was heavy rain and a power outage in most part of the northeastern province. They were arrested on separate occasions on a charge of illegal entry over the past few years.
Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn Prousoontorn, head of the Police Immigration Bureau, said the detainees, who were locked in the same cell on the second floor, appeared to have destroyed overhead iron bars and pulled down part of them with their weight. They then cut through gypsum ceiling and roof tiles, climbed about five metres down to the ground, and broke through the centre’s razor-wire fence.
Four immigration officers who were on duty at that time did not discover the cell break until 5am.
A combined team of police, soldiers and volunteers searched for the fugitives and finally rounded up nine of them who were hiding at a cemetery of a local temple four kilometres away from the detention centre, at 1pm. The last detainee was located at a nearby pond about three hours later.
The four guards have been transferred to the Immigration Division 4 pending investigation to determine if the lax enforcement of safety rules or a foul play was to blame for the pre-dawn escape, said Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn.
Nong Khai governor Suchart Noppawan said the 10 men were transferred from the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok in July. They came from Malaysia to Thailand by car and by boat and sought to go to Turkey. They claimed to be students, chefs, carpenters and businessmen, he said.
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