Just hours after he bust out of a high-security prison as it was
rocked by mortar blasts in conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, Natalya
Nikitenko drove her son right back to jail.
"He himself said that he had to return so it wouldn't count as
escaping. We are doing everything according to the law," she told AFP
as she climbed into her car outside the jail in the besieged rebel
stronghold of Donetsk.
Nikitenko's son -- who still has four years left to serve for car theft
-- was one of 106 inmates who escaped as the jail was shelled by
government forces late Sunday.
A prison official said the inmates escaped "in a panic."
One prisoner was killed and several injured as mortar blasts rocked
the correctional facility in a western district of the city, prison
authorities said.
However 34 had made their way back by Monday.
"How can you live without the law?" Nikitenko said, adding that she
had driven her son back at his own request after he ran home.
She said her son had told her "some kind of firing hit their barracks.
He said he leapt out and a man was lying with his head missing. He was
scared and ran out like a bullet. He didn't even know how he got
home."
An AFP correspondent at the scene found the prison gates open Monday
and rebel gunmen patrolling around.
A mortar had blasted a hole some 50 centimetres (20 inches) deep in
the asphalt in the jail yard.
A rebel spokesman going by the nom de guerre Koba said several
fighters had come to search the location over fears escaped prisoners
could get their hands on weapons and commit violent crimes.
"We want to work out how many prisoners escaped," said Koba, who was
carrying a pistol and also had a gun slung over his shoulder.
"When these people start doing lots of foul deeds, it will all get
blamed on the rebels" he added.
A plain-clothed prison official told AFP that one prisoner was killed
after "half his head was blown off by the force of the blast" and
around 10 had minor shrapnel injuries from three shells.
He said scores of inmates were still missing but could be hiding nearby.
"In panic, people hid in bomb shelters and cellars. We are now working
out how many and checking the prisoners," the official said.
Central Donetsk has been pounded by heavy shelling over the past few
days as Ukrainian forces have surrounded the city and vowed to retake
the pro-Russian rebel bastion.
A growing number of civilian casualties have been reported as
artillery shelling has hit hospitals and homes around the beleaguered
city.
Over 1,300 have been killed and more than 285,000 people have fled
their homes in eastern Ukraine due to fierce clashes in four months of
conflict.
AFP
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