Eight missing from Honduras jail

By Will Grant
BBC Americas editor

President Zelaya wants stronger punitive measures

Authorities in Honduras are searching for at least eight escaped prisoners after a group of inmates shot their way out of prison.

One prison guard was killed and several were injured during the jail break.

One prisoner who was serving a 15-year sentence for murder, was shot outside the jail by the police while another prisoner was captured.

The episode is a further indication of the endemic problems in the country's penal system.

By all accounts it was a dramatic escape.

A group of 10 inmates at the Yoro prison on the Caribbean coast of Honduras launched a violent jail break at the end of visiting hours on Sunday, killing one prison guard and injuring several others.

The majority made their escape in cars which they stole at gunpoint from passing drivers.

Eight remain on the run and the authorities are reportedly offering a reward for information about their whereabouts.

Yoro prison houses 220 inmates, although it was built to hold just 75.

Many prisons in Honduras, indeed in Central America in general, are dangerously overcrowded.

The high crime rate and the large drug gang population mean there isn't sufficient capacity to hold the number of criminals being sent to prison.

And the country's President, Manuel Zelaya, who came to office on a promise to tackle crime, has pushed for stronger punitive measures to deal with the gangs, supporting work farms and longer prison sentences which critics say has been at the cost of rehabilitation programmes.