UPDATED: Gunmen attack Imo police hqts, prison, free 2,600 inmates

About 2,000 prisoners have escaped in Owerri, the Imo State capital, after an attack Monday morning by gunmen on the Correctional Facility near the State Government House.

The hoodlums also attacked the Imo Police command headquarters and set free another 600 suspects in custody.

They set the police headquarters ablaze with dozens of vehicles razed in the process.

The attack was said to have started around 1.30am and ended around 3.30am without any resistance.

The gunmen reportedly released heavy gunshots to the air continuously as they approached the police command headquarters and launched an attack on the state Criminal Investigative Department (CID).

The officers on duty were said to have taken off when they saw the heavily armed hoodlums.

Only the anti-kidnapping unit located some metres away inside the police barracks at Shell Camp was not attacked.

After releasing the detainees, it was learnt that the hoodlums also bombed the building, setting dozens of vehicles in the police command head office ablaze.

The hoodlums were said to have moved over to the Owerri Correctional Centre, which they forced open with dynamites and freed the prisoners.

Spokesmen for the state police command, Orlando Ikeokwu, was yet to react to the attack as of 10am Monday when the report was filed.