Convicts hold 20 hostage

Press, 21 September 1977, Page 8

Convicts hold 20 hostage

NZPA-Reuter Oporto, Portugal Eleven armed convicts holding 20 hostages behind barricades in a Portuguese prison yesterday bargained, with the authorities for freedom and a safe passage to Morocco. The mutineers, armed with I at least three automatic. rifles, seized the prison gov-1 ernor. guards, and five I women employed in the j prison’s administration block [when they tried to break out on Monday. One of the gang, hit when [guards opened fire, died; [ later in hospital. The prison [ governor was hit in the leg,! a guard was shot in thej chest, and two prisoners suffered minor wounds dur-1 ing the gun-battle. The gang refused to let

the wounded be removed to hospital, but they allowed a doctor and a nurse to attend to them — at gunpoint. The convicts’ leader and two of the band were in jail awaiting trial for attempting to rob the Bank of Portugal lin Oporto last February. The police said they were former I members of the National i Front for the Liberation of (Angola, one of the defeated nationalist groups of the Angolan civil war. Soon after the shooting began, security forces ringed the prison with armoured cars. Nearby residents II were evacuated. I Two officials of the Ministry of Justice were on their 'way to the prison late [ I yesterday from Lisbon to try ito persuade the mutineers to II surrender.