ATTACK ON PRISON

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25177, 7 May 1947, Page 7

ATTACK ON PRISON

PLANES SEARCH FOR ESCAPEES

29 TERRORISTS AT LARGE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Ree. 10 p.m.) JERUSALEM, May 5. Force aircraft have joined in the search for the prisoners were liberated by Jewish terrorists from Acre Prison. J Th® latest casualty figures resulting Sa?? t Z t e a r^ ld on the Prison are officially stated to have added up to a tQ tel 16 killed and 20 wcunded. the dead were six Jewish terrorists, who wore stolen British uniforms, four Jewish ’prisoners and one Arab prisoner* who were killed, while escaping, s. nd .“ v ® Jews who were killed when British troops returned the fire of the miTorists who ambushed them. Eight 2” w ere wounded in the battle at tne walls of the prison. It is now officially stated that 183 Arabs and 33 Jews, including the four £JL ws »<? i l led ’ esca Ped from the prison. Tne 29 Jews who are still at large are all convicted terrorists. It is explained that there is difficulty in assessing the exact number of prisoners who escaped, due to the fact that the prisoners did not wear prison dress.

The Arab prisoners who escaped are reported to be surrendering in “large numbers.”

Many of the prisoners are believed to have reached the hills round Safed, and large units of the Transjordan Frontier Force are hunting for them. The 6th Airborne Division to-day cordoned off Mishmar Hayam and Ein Manfraz, two small Jewish settlements north of Acre. The police are screeningthe inhabitants. The correspondent in Jerusalem of the “Daily Telegraph” says a certain amount of mystery still surrounds the attack on the Acre prison. Jews and Arabs alike are wondering how the terrorists managed to stage such an operation against one of the most strongly fortified and guarded prisons in the country. The terrorists operated,in an Arab city where a Jew could not expect any co-operation from the population, and in the heart of the area in which the 6th Airborne Division is stationed. Most of the Jewish settlements in the area belong to new groups of settlers known to be strongly antiterrorist, and it is impossible to avoid the concltision that security measures were not as tight as they should have been and that thfe necessary precautions wen* not taken.