FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2021 file photo, Arnel Joseph is returned to the National Penitentiary after being brought before a judge in handcuffs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery, File)PORT-AU-PRINCE – PORT-AU-Haitian authorities announced Friday that more than 400 inmates escaped and 25 people died in a prison breakout, making it the country's largest and deadliest one in a decade, with the prison director and a powerful gang leader among those killed.
The prison is known for a 2014 breakout in which more than 300 of the 899 inmates being held there at the time escaped.
At the time of Thursday's breakout, the prison held 1,542 inmates, nearly twice its capacity.
Haiti's largest prison breakout in recent history occurred after the devastating 2010 earthquake in which more than 4,200 inmates fled the notorious National Penitentiary in downtown Port-au-Prince.