A WHOPPING 6,000 inmates escaped a high-security jail in Mozambique on Christmas Day after prisoners stole guards’ weapons.
Cops have now called for the criminals, which includes 29 terrorists, to give themselves up after they fled through a toppled wall.
Police chief Bernardino Rafael said 33 prisoners died and 15 others were injured during a fight with the security forces as part of the escape.
The jailbreak happened in Maputo Central Prison, located nine miles southwest of Mozambique’s capital Maputo.
Rafael said the riot began around midday on Wednesday after agitation by a group of protesters outside the walls.
Some of the prisoners at the facility snatched weapons from the guards and started freeing other detainees.
Rafael said protesters outside the prison “were making noise, demanding that they be able to remove the prisoners who are there serving their sentences” before the wall collapsed.
Prisoners were caught on video shouting and milling around in the yard of the jail.
Another clip showed a man with handcuffs attached to one hand outside the prison proclaiming his freedom.
The man says: “These handcuffs are because I lit the first flame in the maximum security prison.
“I was in the disciplinary cell, my cronies started a revolution and freed me.
“I’m going home with this s***, but I am going to save the country”.
The prison riot comes as post-election violence has erupted in the country.
Violence has engulfed Mozambique since Monday when the country’s highest court confirmed the ruling party’s presidential candidate Daniel Chapo as the winner of disputed October 9 elections.
Mozambique’s Interior Minister Pascoal Ronda told a news conference Tuesday the violence was led by mostly youthful supporters of losing candidate Venancio Mondlane, who received 24 per cent of the vote, second to Chapo, who got 65 per cent.
