40 inmates escape from jail in Brazil

Forty inmates have escaped from a prison in the eastern Brazilian city of Recife according to international media reports.

 The authorities said that the inmates escaped after a bomb was used to blow a hole in an external wall, but most of the prisoners were captured after a manhunt through local streets lasting several hours.

Reports indicate that two of the prisoners were killed and one remains at large, after the second mass breakout in the area in the same week.

The BBC reports that on Wednesday, 53 men escaped from another jail on the city outskirts and only 13 of them have since been found.

According to reports, social media images broadcast on Brazilian TV captured the moment when the explosion ripped through the external wall of the Frei Damiao de Bozanno prison. A man was seen walking up to walked up to the prison wall from the street outside and leaving a package, minutes before the explosion.

Dozens of men are seen leaping through the hole in a cloud of dust, seconds later, where they then fanned out into the residential streets, many running into houses.

The BBC adds that the prison guard's union said it had warned the authorities that a breakout was imminent, given that only half the observation towers at the prison were manned because of staff shortages in recent weeks.

According to reports, prisons in the state are often run by electing inmates to maintain security alongside the guard, with this particular complex housing four times the number of prisoners it was built for.