Post date: Oct 22, 2012 7:58:40 PM
At least five prisoners were killed and several more injured when a bomb tore through a prison transport van in Johannesburg on Monday, South African police and rescue services say.
JOHANNESBURG; SOUTH AFRICA (OCTOBER 22, 2012) (REUTERS) - At least five prisoners were killed and several more injured when a bomb tore through a prison transport van in Johannesburg on Monday (October 22), South African police and rescue services said.
In what appears to be a failed escape attempt, police said a door of the van was blown open as it transported 36 prisoners back to a jail in southern Johannesburg from a magistrate's court where they are awaiting trial."The explosion occurred from the inside and it blew the side of the truck out. So further investigations will reveal to us where did that explosive come from, who had it, and who was actually behind planning the escape," cluster commander Major General Oswald Reddy told a news conference.
Reddy said the police would try to find a way to prevent similar escape attempts in the future.
"We lock the vehicles, we ensure that the security is not compromised, therefore they had to plan a way out where they now have to use explosive devices in order to get out of of the police vehicle while it is in transit. So we now need to go back to the drawing board and look at how do we ensure that this does not recur in the future."
Police told reporters at a news conference that three of prisoners were confirmed dead and 14 more injured. The remaining 19 were free from injury, police said.
However, an emergency services worker told Reuters that four prisoners had died at the scene and another died en route to hospital.
No bystanders appeared to have been injured in the explosion, which occurred near the jail.
While gun violence is not unusual in South Africa, cases involving explosives tend to be rare.