About 30 inmates have escaped after a riot broke out at a prison in western Indonesia, an official said yesterday.

The riot at the Labuhan Ruku facility in North Sumatra district of Batubara began yesterday afternoon after a group of inmates who were transferred from other prisons staged a protest due to overcrowding, said prison official Wibowo Jokoharjono.

He said others joined in the protest before it turned violent. Two guards were held captive by the inmates. Initial reports said about 30 inmates had escaped by climbing a prison wall.

The prison has a capacity to house 300 inmates but is now sheltering about 800.

Ten fire trucks were needed to extinguish a fire while police and soldiers blocked roads around the prison, which is located 140km (90 miles) from the province capital of Medan. It is the second jailbreak in the province and the third in Indonesia this year.

In July, about 240 prisoners, including convicted terrorists, escaped following a riot at a facility in Medan, the country’s third-largest city, after they set fires and started a riot that left five people dead.