Ukraine Jail Break As Inmates flee From Shells

Over 100 inmates broke out of jail when shells rained down on a
high-security prison in the besieged rebel stronghold of Donetsk in
east Ukraine, killing one, local authorities said Monday.

Mortar blasts rocked the correctional facility in a western district
of the city Sunday evening, hitting the living areas, administrative
headquarters and an electrical substation, the city council said in a
statement.

The bombardment sparked a mass jail break that saw scores of detainees
flee the prison.

"A riot started in the facility and 106 people escaped their place of
detention," the statement said, adding that three convicts were
seriously wounded by the shelling.

By Monday morning some had been returned to the facility, with a
prison official telling AFP that 40 inmates were still missing and
thought to be hiding in buildings around the prison.

An AFP correspondent at the scene found the prison gates open and
rebel gunmen patrolling around.

A shell hole some 50 centimetres (20 inches) deep could be seen in the
asphalt in a jail yard.

A spokesman from the rebel Vostok battalion going by the nom de guerre
Koba said that insurgent fighters had come to secure the location over
fears that escaped prisoners could try and get arms.

An AFP crew reported hearing sporadic bombardments across the
insurgent bastion overnight.

Inner city 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 bombardments have 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 the east due to fierce clashes in four months of what
the Red Cross has already deemed a civil war.