Three prisoners, including two death row convicts, escaped from custody at Malaz Prison in Riyadh on the first day of Eid Al-Adha on Monday morning after attacking a guard who was opening the gate for a fellow guard inside the visitation room, a statement from the Prisons Authority said Tuesday. It was not known how the prisoners managed to get out of the prison premises. The prisoners had been allowed into the visitation room to receive their families on the first day of Eid Al-Adha, the statement said. The prison guards chased the escaping inmates on foot, which resulted in one of the convicts dying of “high blood pressure,” based on the initial medical report, said Dr Ayoub Bin Nahit, chief of general affairs at the Prisons Authority. The convict who died was not on death row. The two death-row escapees were picked up by a car waiting for them outside the prison and taken to an unknown destination. The inmates were believed to have plotted their prison break with accomplices outside. They are still on the run. This was not the first incident in this prison as seven terror suspects escaped in July 2006.
