10 killed in failed Cambodia jail break

PHNOM PENH - Nine inmates and their prison guard hostage were killed today during a failed jail break in northwest Cambodia, police said.

The inmates seized a security guard armed with a gun and hand grenade and barricaded themselves inside a jail cell in Battambang, about 200 km from the capital Phnom Penh.

After negotiations failed, police fired tear gas into the cell and rushed the hostage takers.

"As police fired the gas, an inmate put the grenade under our guard and pulled the pin," police official Seng Hor told Reuters by telephone from Battambang.

"They said they decided to kill themselves instead of surrendering," he said.

Nine inmates and the hostage guard were killed and another two inmates were seriously wounded.

Most of the prisoners involved were convicted of serious crimes such as murder, police said.

Prison conditions in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation are among the worst in Asia, with inmates crammed into tight cells in crumbling jail blocks.

Last year, 16 inmates of a prison were shot dead by guards during a jail break in eastern Cambodia.

- REUTERS