In the middle of the coronavirus quarantine, more than 50 prisoners at the San Carlos de Zulia Preventive Detention Center, in the town of Colon, Zulia state, escaped from prison, early this Wednesday morning.
The jail-break was noticing after midnight and triggered a massive deployment of officers from law enforcement agencies surrounded the central area of the jurisdiction of South Lake Maracaibo.
Less than two hours after the escape, the police shot five of the fugitives to death, according to the authorities’ version. The situation worried the neighbors who heard the shooting.
“We heard shots, and hid under the bed,” said a housewife from the Juan de Dios Gonzalez sector, where the police presumed the prisoners were hiding because it was the first slum they encountered during the escape.
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The authorities believe more than 50 prisoners escaping from the facility and are holding new recounts. Some escapees jumped the fence, while others merely walked out the front gate, making it difficult to ascertain the total number of fugitives.
Police call for the community so that, under no circumstances, allow unknown people to enter their homes, and to report the presence of civilians in a suspicious attitude to the commands of armed forces police.
