One inmate at large after prison break

Four prisoners at Hattieville used the Independence Day weekend to make a run for their own freedom…but only one succeeded. Twenty year old Pablo Martinez was one of four inmates in the remand section who, at around two-thirty Saturday morning, broke through a window of their cell, overpowered a guard and relieved him of his nine millimetre pistol. The prisoners fired the weapon in an attempt to force their way into a guard tower, but authorities responded with some fire of their own. One escapee was shot in the arm and remains hospitalised, while two others were recaptured without incident. Martinez, however, still brandishing the pistol, managed to scale the perimeter fence and tonight remains at large, despite a police and prison manhunt. Although armed, Martinez is not considered to be particularly dangerous. The Belize City resident was on remand on a charge of harm. Anyone seeing Martinez is asked to call the nearest police station or Hattieville Prison.