Eleven inmates in north Iraq dug an 80-metre (260-foot) underground tunnel without the authorities' knowledge and escaped to freedom on Saturday, the "surprised" prison's governor said. The prisoners, who were serving a variety of sentences from five years in jail to death for crimes ranging from drug offences to murder, had not yet been recaptured but an inquiry has been launched, he said.
"Eleven prisoners have escaped from prison," said Sagvan Jameel, head of the Zirga jail in the northern Kurdish province of Dohuk, in a press release.