PORT-AU-PRINCE: More than 200 prisoners were on the run in Haiti on Friday, a day after they escaped from jail in a violent breakout that left 25 people dead including the prison director, officials said. About 400 inmates fled on Thursday, with AFP photographs showing at least three dead bodies lying outside the prison and some captured prisoners under armed guard in the back of a truck.

“Twenty-five people died including six prisoners and Divisional Inspector Paul Hector Joseph who was in charge of the prison,” Secretary of Communication Frantz Exantus said of the mass escape from the jail in the suburbs of capital Port-au-Prince.

“Among those killed were some ordinary citizens who were killed by the prisoners during their escape.”

About 200 prisoners were still at large, but “the police are working hard to get them back. Some are in handcuffs, they will not be able to go far,” Exantus said.