BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) – Four foreign and three local inmates escaped from Kerobokan prison on the Indonesian resort island of Bali using a tunnel, the head of the prison said on Monday (June 19) and a search has been launched to find them.
Kerobokan Prison head Tony Nainggolan named the four foreigners as Australian Shaun Edward Davidson, Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov, Indian Sayed Muhammad and Malaysian Tee Kok King and said they escaped through a 12m (39ft) tunnel, which probably took about a week to dig. It had a diameter of 50 x 75cm (20 x30 inches) and was found filled with water, authorities said. Ten guards were on duty on Sunday (June 18) night when the escape is believed to have taken place.
The four fugitives were serving sentences for different crimes, from immigration rules violation to drug crimes,
The capacity of Kerobokan is 323 inmates, but it currently houses more than four times that number at 1,378, according to government data. Prison escapes are fairly common in Indonesia and authorities launched an investigation last month after around 350 inmates broke out of an overcrowded jail on Sumatra island in Riau Province.