Prisoners escape bid

FOUR notorious armed robbers who had been brought to court on routine remand ran riot, disarmed a prison officer and tried to flee in a foiled escape on Monday.
One of the escapees was shot in the stomach while scaling the security fence at the courts.
He died at Mutare Provincial Hospital where he had been admitted. The other three, who had made good their escape, were apprehended shortly afterwards with the assistance of members of the public. The four Pardon Munetsi, Edmore Mangenje, Taurai Ben Simango and Liberty Sibanda are facing a slew of criminal charges including armed robbery and attempted murder.
Zimbabwe Prison Services assistant public relations officer Senior Prison Officer Liberty Mhlanga said the foiled escape was a planned thing.
“From the information we gathered, these four prisoners had planned the escape since last month. Their initial plan was that they wanted to escape while in remand prison but the security was tight.
“So they thought they might succeed if they attempted to do so at the courts. So when they were brought for routine remand on Monday, they attacked a prison officer, tried to disarm him. They wanted to take his service rifle and disappear with it,” he said.
Mr Mhlanga said their plan did not work well and they jumped over the fence and Sibanda was shot as he was scaling the fence. “His other accomplices who had escaped were arrested with assistance from members of the public,” he said.