Cons throw warder down shaft

2003-08-17 16:29

Pretoria - Six inmates of the Pretoria local prison assaulted a warder on Sunday and threw him down a ventilation shaft in a failed bid to escape, a correctional services spokesperson reported.

Isaac Mosiane said the warder, Philip Joob, was doing routine duty at 11:30 when he was assaulted by six prisoners.

The men hit Joob over the head with a heavy object, then took his prison keys as well as his uniform. They threw the unconscious Joob down a ventilation shaft, said Mosiane.

He sustained various injuries and was taken to the Medforum hospital, but details of the injuries were not yet known.

Mosiane said the men used the keys to make their way to the roof of the prison, but they were spotted by a prisons official as they were trying to scale the fence around the perimeter of the roof. The official gave the alarm and five of the men were recaptured.

The sixth man managed to scale the fence and then jumped from the roof, but he broke a leg and was unable to get away.

The man who broke a leg was taken to hospital, while the other five were immediately transferred to the high-security C-Max prison. They would remain there until the investigation into the incident was completed.

The six men were serving sentences for robbery with aggravated circumstances, escape from custody, unlawful possession of firearms, murder and attempted murder, said Mosiane.

They were all between 25 and 35 years old.

- SAPA