400 escape Libyan prison among clashes

Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Around 400 inmates escaped from a prison near Libya's capital amid fighting between militia groups and government forces in the region, police said.

The breakout occurred Sunday in Ain Zara in southern Tripoli. Violent clashes have taken place in the past week between government forces and the so-called seventh brigade militias from the nearby city of Tarhuna, 50 miles southeast of Tripoli.

Volence has taken place between rival factions around the prison.

The BBC reported many of the prisoners were supporters of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and many were guilty of their roles in the uprising against his government in 2011.

"The detainees were able to force open the doors and leave," police said in a statement Sunday.

And the guards, fearing for their lives, couldn't prevent the breakout after riots at the jail.

Also Sunday, two people were killed and several others were injured when rockets hit a camp in Libya's capital housing hundreds of displaced people, according to emergency services and witnesses.

The Presidential Council, backed by the United Nations, has declared a state of emergency in Tripoli,. The council also has urged rival militias to abide by a UN-brokered ceasefire.

Forty-seven people, including civilians, have died in rival militia clashes in Tripoli over the past week, Libya's Ministry of Health said.