Seven inmates serving life sentences for murder have escaped from an Albanian prison, triggering a massive manhunt for the armed and "dangerous" convicts, police said.
"The inmates, all convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, are armed," police said in a statement yesterday.
They warned citizens to stay behind closed doors as the fugitives from the Drenova prison, some 170 kilometres south of the capital Tirana, were "dangerous."
A "significant" number of police were engaged in a search for the escaped convicts, the statement said without elaborating.
Neighbouring Greece and Macedonia were informed of the escape.
Local media reported that the inmates had managed to disarm prison guards and flee by car as weather conditions deteriorated.
The Drenova prison houses 320 convicts.
