Prison Escape Is Evidence of Prison Vulnerability According to VP Chinchilla
Police have mounted an intensive man hunt for the eight prisoners who escaped from the La Reforma penitentiary early Monday morning, killing one guard in the way of their freedom.

The eight men took flight at 1:10am following cutting trough bars of a window in the minimum security section of the prison, taking guards as hostages and exchanging gunfire with police at the prison gates.

The penitentiary is located in La Guacima de Alajuela, west of the Juan Santamaría (San José) airport, is the most important prison in the judicial system and is home to some of the most dangerous criminals in the country.

Police are using police dogs, SUV's and helicopters in their search for escapees.

Reports last night came from residents of the area around Atenas of seeing some suspicious men in the area. Police concentrated their efforts in the area west of the prison, but so far have yet to come into contact with escaped inmates.

Vice-President, Laura Chinchilla and former minister of Justice, said "the escape is evidence of a serious vulnerability of the prison".

Chinchilla added that she has ordered an internal investigation to find out what happened and how such an escape could occur and how they could have, not one, but seven handguns.

Vice-president Chinchilla hinted that she did not discount they may have had help from the inside, however, for security reasons, refused to elaborate on any details.

The men were being held in cell block "C", which is formed of four dormitories, each holding 20 inmates. The eight occupied two of the dormitories and cut trough the window iron bars with a small saw.

According to early reports, the group entered the main hallway guns blazing and shot one of the guards who later died in hospital. Overtaking the rest of the guards on route to the main entrance of the prison, and using the guards as shields, forced the two guards at the main gate to open the doors to freedom.

The guards reported that the men walked about 1/2 kilometre where they all got in to a black vehicle waiting for them, driving by a young man who had his face covered and were then freed a short distance from the area known as Ciruelas.

In the escape they took from the guards a pistol and HK submachine gun and made off into the darkness of the early morning.

Guillermo Arroyo, director of the Dirección Adaptación Social that administers the penitentiaries, said that before they began their search for the escaped men, the La Reforma was locked down and security strengthened to prevent any massive escapes.