Red faces after Georgia jailbreak

Prison authorities in Georgia are being asked to explain the circumstances of an embarrassing jailbreak near the capital, Tbilisi.

Three prisoners used a tunnel to reach freedom, and a hunt is on to recapture them.

Correspondents say the breakout was made easier because the men used a thirty-metre tunnel which had been discovered at Rustavi prison during an escape attempt seven years ago.

The Georgian justice minister Mikheil Saakashvili said he believed the latest escape was a direct result of corruption in the prison service. He said about eighteen hundred prisoners had escaped since 1992 -- including more than one hundred and thirty in the past few weeks alone.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service