With Bedsheets, Mass Breakout at Uttar Pradesh Detention Centre

Scores of inmates staged a mass breakout from a young offenders' detention centre in Uttar Pradesh  by tying bedsheets together and then scaling down the walls of the three-storey building. All are aged under 18.

A total of 91 inmates managed to flee the facility in Meerut overnight, although about 35 have since been recaptured, said the city's superintendent of police Om Prakash.

"They removed an iron grille from a window at the back of the building while police were guarding the front," Mr Prakash said. "This was done so professionally that no one got a whiff," Mr Prakash added.

Those still on the run included inmates convicted of crimes such as theft and banditry.

Police say the break-out was staged some time between 1:00am and 3:00am and the alarm was only raised when officers who were patrolling near the centre spotted some of the fugitives trying to flag down public transport.

Inmates from the same centre beat a policeman to death in December.

More than 31,000 inmates are being held at young offenders institutes or juvenile homes in India, according to the latest available set of official statistics.