A WHOPPING 6,000 inmates escaped a high-security jail in Mozambique on Christmas Day after prisoners stole guards' weapons.
Cops have now called for the criminals, which includes 29 terrorists, to give themselves up after they fled through a toppled wall.
Police chief Bernardino Rafael said 33 prisoners died and 15 others were injured during a confrontation with the security forces.
The escape from the Maputo Central Prison, located nine miles southwest of Maputo, started around midday on Wednesday after agitation by a group of subversive protesters nearby, Rafael said.
Some of the prisoners at the facility snatched weapons from the guards and started freeing other detainees.
The prison riot comes as post-election violence has erupted in the country.
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Rafael said protesters outside the prison "were making noise, demanding that they be able to remove the prisoners who are there serving their sentences" before the wall collapsed.
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