Indonesia to evacuate foreign inmates from riot jail

Indonesia said Thursday it would evacuate all 60 foreigners as well as female prisoners from a jail on Bali island currently under the control of rioting inmates.

"We will evacuate the foreign and female prisoners soon but we won't publicise the time. The evacuation could be by land or air but I cannot give you the specifics," provincial military command spokesman Wing Handoko told AFP.

"We will not storm the prison before they are removed as we fear that their lives will be put at risk," he added.

Sixty foreigners are held at the jail said Anang Khuzairi, head of security at Kerobokan. The jail is home to 1,015 inmates -- among them 125 women -- more than three times its intended capacity.

The foreigners include 12 convicted Australian drug traffickers, including Schapelle Corby and a group known as the "Bali Nine", who were caught attempting to smuggle drugs from Bali.

Three trucks packed with police in full riot gear and dogs arrived outside the Kerobokan prison just after noon, adding to several hundred police, military and ousted guards who spent a tense night locked in a stand-off with inmates holed up inside.

Security forces had stormed the overcrowded prison at dawn on Wednesday to wrest control after a night of arson and stone-throwing, only to lose it again late that night.

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