Fourteen prisoners charged with "terrorism" escape from prison via tunnel in north Iraq city of Mosul

Fourteen prisoners charged with "terrorism" escaped from a prison via a tunnel in the north Iraq city of Mosul on Thursday, security officials said, in the latest jailbreak in Iraq.

"Thirty-five prisoners tried to escape from a prison in Al-Faisaliyah" in central Mosul, said Colonel Mohammed al-Juburi, of the Nineveh province police. Security forces "arrested 21 of them, but 14 others were able to escape from the prison," Juburi said.

All 35 were charged with terrorism-related offences, he said, adding that an open-ended curfew was instituted in Mosul around 8:00 am (0500 GMT) on Thursday due to the jailbreak.

Colonel Rahim al-Shammari, spokesman for Nineveh police, said later on Thursday that the prisoners who escaped did so via a tunnel under the prison that was about 50 metres (yards) long.

Juburi had said earlier that no clashes took place during the escape. But Dr Mohammed Salem said that City Hospital, where he works in Mosul, had received two prisoners with bullet wounds to their legs.

A police source said that the wounded prisoners were among the 21 arrested trying to escape.

An interior ministry official confirmed that 35 prisoners had attempted to escape in Mosul, but that 21 of them were apprehended.