Manhunt on for two escaped prisoners

In a daring move straight out of a Hollywood script that is unprecedented in Taiwan, two prisoners being held at the Taichung Detention Center -- including a death row inmate -- escaped during the early hours of yesterday morning after taking two guards hostage at gunpoint, sparking a massive manhunt.

Although one guard was soon released, the other -- now under suspicion of involvement in the escape plot -- was still missing as of press time, as were the two escapees.

The inmates have been identified as Huang Chu-wang (黃主旺), sentenced to death for murder and on appeal, and Yang Han-peng (楊漢鵬), detained last year on robbery charges and now awaiting trial.

Prosecutors said Huang and Yang escaped from their ward at 1:55am yesterday morning, when they were able to get two hand-guns and seize the on-duty guard Hsu Chang-ching (徐長慶).

With Hsu as hostage, the pair then proceeded through several electric security gates -- apparently undetected -- until they reached the front reception office.

There, they allegedly overpowered another guard, Ruan Wen-ching (阮文清) and escaped from the building through a side door.

Once outside, the men forced Hsu and Ruan into Hsu's car and drove toward nearby Mt. Tatu (大肚山), where Ruan was released, said prosecutors.

The escape was reportedly discovered only after Ruan was released and alerted prison authorities by phone, said Shen Huan-jan (沈煥然), vice administrator of the prison.

The Ministry of Justice has set up a special task force to investigate the incident, which now strongly suspects the missing guard of abetting the escape.

"We have not ruled out Hsu's involvement in assisting the escape," said Hsu Wan-Hsiang (許萬相), a prosecutor at the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office and a member in the ad hoc investigation team.

According to the prosecutor, Hsu was scheduled to work from 8pm to 11pm Saturday night, but had requested a shift swap with his colleague and so was working the 11pm to 2am shift.

The prosecutor said Hsu left the detention center before beginning his shift. When he returned, he was carrying two bags, the contents of which remain unknown.

"Usually when the guards enter the detention sector, they are body-searched. But this did not happen Saturday night because there was no one on duty at the control center," said prosecutor Hsu.

He said that at the time of the escape, only three of the facility's 150 guards were actually on duty ? including the two who were seized as hostages.

The facility was holding some 2,000 inmates at the time.

How the guns were brought into the facility is also under investigation. Prosecutors said the possibility the guns were brought in during an earlier visit to the inmates has not yet been ruled out.

Meanwhile, justice officials have been doublely embarrassed by the apparent lack of any videotape of the incident, as the men walked undetected from the detention center. Deputy warden Shen told reporters yesterday that the entire proceedings were apparently not recorded by security cameras.

"That is shameful and regrettable, we will apologize to the public," said Vice Minister of Justice Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定).

He said Minister of Justice Yeh Ching-fong (葉金鳳) was both shocked and enraged that such a bold escape had been successful.

"We will make every effort to find out whether any detention center staffers collaborated with the two felons in the escape and [if there were] we will severely punish them."