2 inmates escape during Iran prison blast
Ilam police chief says rocket-propelled grenade damaged prison's wall, allowing two inmates who had been sentenced to death to flee
A bomb explosion outside a prison in Iran on Saturday wounded 19 people and allowed two prisoners to escape, Mehr news agency cited a local police official as saying.
The blast was in front of the facility in Ilam in western Iran, the city's deputy police chief Colonel Aziz Abdi told the agency.
"Nineteen people have been wounded, including three prison guards," he said, adding that three prisoners tried to escape "but one of them has been recaptured and two are still at large."
The official IRNA news agency quoted Ilam governor Nurullah Arjomandi as saying a rocket-propelled grenade had been fired at the prison, damaging a wall and shattering windows. He did not mention casualties or give further details.
According to another local news outlet, the prisoners who had escaped were sentenced to death.
A senior medical official in Ilam told the Fars news agency that the blast did not result in any deaths and that the wounded were evacuated.
