At Least 40 Prisoners Escape From Brazil Prison

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At least 40 prisoners have escaped from a jail in the eastern Brazilian city of Recife after a bomb was used to blow a hole in an external wall.

Officials said that most of the prisoners were captured after a manhunt through local streets lasting several hours, but two were killed and one remains at large.

This is the second mass breakout in the area in a week.

On Wednesday, 53 men escaped from another jail on the city outskirts and only 13 of them had since been found.

Reports said that prisons in the state are often run by electing inmates to maintain security alongside the guards.

The Prison Guard’s Union said it had warned the authorities that a breakout was imminent.

The prison complex houses four times the number of prisoners it was built for.

It said that at the time of the explosion, only half the observation towers at the prison were manned because of staff shortages.

The Union said that the state of Pernambuco in which Recife lies had little more than 1,500 prison guards for its penitentiaries when there should be at least 5,000.