30 INMATES ESCAPE DURING RIOT AT REHABILITATION CENTRE

BUTTERWORTH (Malaysia), June 20 (Bernama) -- About 30 inmates escaped during
a riot at the Kampung Selamat Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Tasek Gelugor near
here.

Penang police chief Ayub Yaakob said only 492 of 522 inmates were
accounted for when a head count was conducted after the three-hour riot was
quelled at 10.15pm.

He said police had picked up two of them in Padang Serai near the Penang
border with Kedah.

The inmates accounted for will be shifted to nearby rehabilitation centres,
he told reporters at the scene.

He said 589 policemen and Federal Reserve Unit personnel were involved in
the operation while 57 firemen fought the blaze that had destroyed three blocks
of building at the centre.

There were no casualties in the incident.

Roadblocks have been mounted around the state to nab the remaining escapees.

-- BERNAMA