One of the two death row inmates who escaped from solitary confinement in a prison of the Ministry of Public Security (MOPS) in Hanoi on September 10 have been arrested.

The detention centre where the two escaped death row inmates were kept 

Le Van Tho got caught on September 16 while holing up in Nam Sach district in the northern province of Hai Duong and is being escorted back to Hanoi, the MOPS told the media.

The other escaped inmate, Nguyen Van Tinh, remained on the loose.

After Tho, 37, and Tinh, 28, were found to have broken out of the T16 detention centre in Thanh Oai district on the early morning of September 11, the MOPS directed special agencies to work with local police to search for the two inmates.

The two had been kept in the same cell and still seen on CCTV camera until 9pm on September 10 but disappeared just one hour later.

The police determined that the two inmates bore a hole through the wall to get out of their place of confinement, then climbed up a watch tower and used a rope to escape from the detention centre.

On September 13 evening, the two fugitives were seen at a night club in Ha Long in Quang Ninh province.

Tho had been sentenced to death on charges of drug trafficking, murder and swindle while Tinh received the same sentence for his involvement in the trafficking of hundreds of packs of drug.

Nhan Dan