Brazil prison revolt frees 19 inmates

SAO PAULO - Five heavily armed men stormed into a Brazilian prison and freed 19 inmates Thursday, police said.

The attackers forced their way into the jail in Palmital, around 400 km from Sao Paulo, around 3 a.m. They overpowered two guards and locked them in a cell.

The action appeared to have been aimed at freeing a drug dealer.

“That’s one of the possibilities, but we can’t say with certainty yet that that was the motive for the attack. The investigation is ongoing,” Marcelo Armstrong Nunes, a police officer, told local media.

Police deployed a helicopter to search for the fugitives, capturing six and putting them back in jail.