Three Chinese inmates on the run after murdering prison guard
Three men, one on death row, disguised themselves with police uniforms before making a rare prison break
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 02 September, 2014, 11:03am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 02 September, 2014, 1:16pm
Associated Press in Beijing
Three inmates escaped in a rare jailbreak in China’s northeast Heilongjiang province on Tuesday. Photo: Weibo
Three inmates escaped in a rare jailbreak in China’s northeast Heilongjiang province after killing a guard on Tuesday morning, Chinese state media reports.
The website of the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper says the incident at Yanshou county jail outside the city of Harbin took place about 6 am on Tuesday.
One of the men, 50-year-old Gao Yulun, had been sentenced to death, the report said.
The other two, 35-year-old Wang Damin and 29-year-old Li Haiwei, were charged, respectively, with assault leading to death and murder. It was not clear whether they had gone on trial yet.
It says police are searching for the fugitives with armed patrols.
The report says the three were wearing police jackets and shirts, but gave no other details. A guard who answered the jail’s phone said he was not permitted to answer questions, and calls to the county’s Communist Party propaganda office rang unanswered.
Chinese prisons are run along strict lines and escapes are extremely rare.
China imprisons a far smaller percentage of its population than the US — 118 per 100,000 people compared to America’s 737 per 100,000.
However, punishments are often harsh and China is believed to execute more people for crimes each year than the rest of the world combined.
