'Great Escape': 31 Rush Through a 'Jail Window' in Lebanon

ALBAWABA - It's being described as the "great escape" although its from Lebanon this time for its daring approach.

More than 30 people fled a Lebanon detention centre at dawn on Sunday, security forces said, after sawing their way through a window, according to a judicial official quoted by AFP. 

The escape is trending on the social media with news websites talking about the way it was made:

"At dawn... 31 detainees managed to escape" from a detention centre in the Adlieh district of the capital Beirut, the Internal Security Forces said in a statement according to the French news agency, adding the detainees broke past a prison window using a saw smuggled into the facility, said a judicial official close to an investigation into the incident.

"The escapees include Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians, among other foreigners," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

On Sunday morning, an AFP correspondent saw security forces and army personnel deployed in the Beirut neighbourhood housing the jail.

News of the escape has been trending since it was made, being covered in the local Lebanese media and internationally:

The Adlieh detention centre was formerly controlled by Lebanon's General Security agency but is now manged by the country's prison authority AFP reports.  It was notorious for abuses committed against detained Syrian refugees and foreign migrant domestic workers, according to rights groups, including Human Rights Watch.

Bassam Al Kantar of Lebanon's National Human Rights Commission said the facility was among the country's worst, suffering from overcrowding, foul sewage smells and lack of ventilation and sunlight. "Detainees are malnourished... and are not allowed to receive food from their families," he said.

"Healthcare is also non-existent, with a large number of detainees suffering from skin diseases," mainly due to lack of hygiene measures in the facility, he told AFP.

Lebanon is facing its worst economic crisis in decade so much so its believed to be  on the point of bankruptcy and needs international help with soaring inflation and unemployment.