Yemen denies prison escape in southern city

SANA’A - Yemen’s Interior Ministry denied reports that southern separatists escaped from a police station in the southern city of al-Dhalea after a blast at the building Thursday.

Earlier in the day, local sources said around 30 members of the secessionist Southern Movement fled after a bomb blast rocked the building.

The ministry said in a statement that six detainees were injured after one of them detonated a hand grenade. It said the reports on the escape were “completely untrue and baseless.”

It said the six were among 20 “saboteurs” arrested earlier in the day over their participation in an unlicensed demonstration in al-Dhalea, some 260 km south of the capital Sana’a.

Witnesses said police exchanged fire with armed separatists outside the detention centre after the explosion, but made no reports about casualties.