20 inmates killed in Madagascar prison breakout

Twenty inmates have been killed in a shoot-out with police during a prison breakout in Madagascar on Sunday.

Madagascar's justice ministry said tens of prisoners attacked guards with rocks and grabbed a gun as they tried to flee the Farafangana prison in the southeast of the Indian Ocean island.

Thirty-seven of the 88 who managed to escape were captured by the police and army while eight were wounded in the shoot-out.

Thirty-one inmates are still on the run, the ministry said, vowing to boost security at all penitentiaries across the country.

Mass prison escapes are not uncommon in Madagascar.

In 2016, approximately 40 detainees broke out of a high-security prison in Toliary in southern Madagascar.