Sydney - Inmates at a Port Moresby prison timed their mass breakout to coincide with one of Papua New Guinea's biggest sporting events, Deputy Police Commissioner Henry Wavik said Monday. A visiting Australian rugby side was playing a team picked by the PNG prime minister on Sunday afternoon when 54 men escaped from Bomana Prison.
The escapees were described as among the South Pacific country's worst offenders and only three have been recaptured.
"For murder, rape, armed robbery: they are in for those kind of offences," Wavik told Australia's ABC Radio. "That's why they are considered very, very dangerous."
Wavik said wire cutters to get through six fences were probably supplied by corrupt prison guards.
It was hours before the breakout was discovered because police and prison officers were at the game either as spectators or crowd controllers.
