MOUNT HAGEN, Papua New Guinea, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Papua New Guinea prison officials say they have foiled a mass jailbreak in which 487 hungry inmates attempted to escape.
Papua New Guinea's newspaper The National said that the prisoners at Baisu Jail outside Mount Hagen in the Western Highland Province had gone days without being fed after a contract expired with the prison's food suppliers, prompting them to attempt a jailbreak, The Times of London reported Wednesday.
Some of the prisoners reportedly made it as far as a 13-foot outer wall fence before guards opened fire and forced them back to their cells.
Chief Superintendent Simon Sobaim told The National the country's police commissioner moved has asked the contractor to come back and feed the prisoners.
"Warders fired shots to stop prisoners from escaping but no one was killed or injured," The Times reported Sobaim as saying. "I am thankful that the prisoners surrendered when they heard the shots."
