Sixteen detainees escaped from a police station in the city of Mahalla on Friday, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported. They reportedly managed to flee when wardens opened cell doors in the morning to collect waste. The detainees threw hot water at their wardens, creating havoc. Colonel Haitham Atta said that police have re-arrested six of the escapees in different parts of the Nile Delta city and are searching for the rest. The inmates were detained pending investigations in separate cases. Following the escapes, clashes broke out in the Al-Kanaysi area of the city as security forces hunted down the fugitives, at least five of whom are from one family. Al-Ahram reported that bullets were fired in the air by both the police and the family of the five detainees. Major General Osama Bedeir, the security director of Gharbiya governorate where Mahalla is located, ordered security by tightened at the jail and said he would hold police forces responsible for any negligence detected. The Egyptian media has reported recently on several similar escape attempts from detention. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/111154.aspx
