Seven prisoners escaped from the Khonsa sub-jail in Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap district and are yet to be traced.
The prisoners broke the bars of their cells and escaped when it was raining heavily and there was no power in the district headquarters town last night, Superintendent of Police Vikramjit Singh said today.
Jail guards came to know about the incident only in the morning and a massive search operation was launched by the police and Assam Rifles to nab them, Singh said.
"But so far no clue about their whereabouts has been found," he added.
The SP said that there was no power supply in the district headquarters for the past three days.
Singh, however, did not rule out a security lapse.
He said that departmental action would be taken if proof of dereliction of duty was established.
This is the third incident of jailbreak in the state in recent times after 18 undertrial prisoners, all Chakma refugees, escaped from a police lockup at the Chowkham police outpost in Lohit district on July 19.
In February, 15 prisoners involved in raping a minor girl near Bareng river in Chowkham escaped from jail after scaling the wall. They were arrested in April.
Last year, four prisoners of the Central Jail at Jollang, near here escaped after breaking the roof of their cell.
They were arrested from Bangalmara in Assam's Lakhimpur district.
