Australian police are searching for three men who escaped from a jail amid what prison staff have called “a riot.”
A total of 10 inmates escaped Greenough Regional Prison, 400 km (250 miles) north of Perth, lateon Tuesday, police said.
Seven have since been recaptured.
The men had scaled a fence during a disturbance at the jail that involved the lighting of fires, officials said.
Authorities warned the public to treat the escapees as “unpredictable” and potentially violent.
Police did not say why fugitives Bradley Silvester, Darryl Councillor and Brendan Bartley had been in prison, but all were classified as medium security inmates.
“The disturbance started with a cell fire and then there were a couple of other fires lit in the prison,” Corrective Services Commissioner Tony Hassall told The West Australian newspaper.
“They broke into some staff offices, got some equipment and used that to cause some damage.”
He said inmates had also assaulted prison officers with unidentified equipment.
According to the officers’ union, three guards were attacked with chemical spray.
“Our members are describing the incident as a riot,” union secretary Paul Ledingham told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“Reports this morning are there is extensive damage within the prison.”
More than 150 extra police officers have been deployed to the region to help track down the escapees, who are believed to be in the area.
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan called it a “very dangerous and very fluid situation.”
Locals were sent late-night warning alerts after the breakout, warning them to keep their homes and cars locked.
Authorities did not say what sparked the disturbance.
Union officials have alleged that the jail is overcrowded, with “unsustainable” levels of staffing.
Pakistan’s Imran Khan vies for power as country heads to polls
Voting has begun in Pakistan after an election campaign overshadowed by concerns of manipulation and violence.
Nearly 106 million people are registered to vote for members of the lower house of parliament and four provincial assemblies.
The PTI party of former star cricketer, Imran Khan, is hoping to beat ex-leader Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N.
But the Human Rights Commission says there have been “blatant” attempts to manipulate the polls.
Hundreds of thousands of troops will be deployed to secure the ballot, which opened at 08:00(03:00 GMT).
Votes will be cast for 272 National Assembly seats that are directly contestable.
Pakistan is no stranger to political turmoil and the last few months have proved no exception.
The man who won the last election is watching this contest from prison, after a scandal stemming from the Panama Papers led to Mr. Sharif being jailed for corruption.
In an interview with BBC Urdu on Monday, the former prime minister’s daughter Maryam Nawaz – who was arrested last month with her father on related charges – criticised the all-powerful military.
“When a prime minister refuses to put down his head and do their [the military’s] bidding, they pull him down with four things; get a religious fatwa issued against him, call him a traitor, call him a friend of India, or call him corrupt. They use these things against every elected prime minister,” she said.
In the eastern city of Lahore, the first person to enter a polling station was female business executive Maryum Arif, who told AFP she planned to vote for the incumbent PML-N as it had “served Pakistan.”
Women in Pakistan have the right to vote though many are unable to exercise this right, with many who live in socially conservative areas pressured into not voting.
Authorities are trying to change this by saying that at least 10% of voters in each constituency must be women in order for the results to be valid.
Pakistan has been ruled on and off by the military during its 71-year history.
This election is significant because it will mark only the second time that one civilian government has handed power to another after serving a full term.
But the run-up to the vote has been controversial.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) complains of a targeted crackdown by the powerful security establishment, with the alleged help of the courts, in favour of Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
On Sunday, a judge in the High Court of Islamabad appeared to back up that allegation, saying that the military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) organisation had been interfering in the judiciary.
Several PML-N candidates also say they have been coerced to switch to the PTI, and nearly 17,000 party members are facing criminal cases over breaking unspecified election rules.
The Pakistani military denies interfering in politics.
Independent media, meanwhile, say there have been blatant attempts to muzzle them.
There are also serious concerns about the participation of internationally designated militants in the election process.
Laos dam collapse: Race to rescue flooded villagers
Rescuers are racing to find survivors after a dam in Laos collapsed late on Monday, flooding several villages and killing at least 20 people.
At least 100 people are still missing, and thousands have lost their homes.
The authorities in Attapeu province have been using helicopters and boats to try to evacuate stranded villagers.
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The dam that collapsed is part of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric power project, which involves Laotian, Thai and South Korean firms.
Local authorities have appealed to government bodies and other communities to provide emergency aid such as clothing, food, drinking water and medicine.
Footage of the disaster has shown survivors huddled on roof tops of their submerged homes, or wading through water, holding children and their belongings.
One woman, seen in a video posted by ABC Laos news on Facebook, cried and prayed as she was evacuated on a boat, telling rescuers her mother was still stranded on a tree.
The dam that collapsed is an auxiliary dam called “Saddle Dam D.”
It is part of a network of two main dams and five subsidiary dams in the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric power project.
The dam was 90% complete and had been set to start operating commercially next year.
SK Engineering & Construction, a South Korean company with a stake in the project, said fractures were first discovered on the dam on Sunday, before it collapsed:
Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding, the main Thai stakeholder, said in a statement that the dam “was fractured” after “continuous rainstorm[s]” caused a “high volume of water to flow into the project’s reservoir.”
As a result, water “leaked to the downstream area and down to Xe-Pian River” about 5km (three miles) away, it added.
Laos has in recent years invested heavily in hydroelectric power – which makes up about 30% of its exports.
The government plans to double current energy production by 2020 to become the “battery of South East Asia.”
But groups warn of the project’s impact on the environment and the nation’s river supports.
Greece wildfires: Search continues after at least 74 killed
A search for survivors is continuing in Greece, where at least 74 people have died in wildfires near the capital Athens.
High winds spread the fire, trapping many in homes and vehicles and forcing others into the sea as they tried to escape the flames.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has declared three days of mourning.
On Tuesday, the bodies of 26 adults and children who apparently died embracing each other were found on a cliff top.
“They had tried to find an escape route but unfortunately these people and their kids didn’t make it in time. Instinctively, seeing the end nearing, they embraced,” Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greece’s Red Cross, said.
On Monday night, hundreds of firefighters battled the flames, which were fanned by winds of up to 100km/h (60mph).
Coastal patrol boats and private vessels picked up hundreds of those who managed to reach harbours or beaches.
Rescuers are now searching houses, cars and the coastline for survivors and victims of the fires, amid fears the death toll will rise.
Relatives of those reported missing have been posting photographs on a website in the hope of tracing their whereabouts.
Prime Minister Tsipras has declared a state of emergency in Attica, saying all emergency services have been mobilised.
Italy, Germany, Poland and France have all sent help in the form of planes, vehicles and firefighters, while Spain and Cyprus have also offered assistance.
The seaside resort of Mati, in Attica, is popular with local tourists, especially pensioners and children attending holiday camps.
Survivor Kostas Laganos said: “It burned our backs and we dived into the water… I said: ‘My God, we must run to save ourselves.'”
George Vokas, whose family also escaped by sea, told BBC News that two women he had tried to help had died.
“We’re talking about a biblical catastrophe in this wonderful area of Mati,” he said.
Charred bodies lay just 15m (50ft) from the sea, photographer Pantelis Saitas told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.
At least 150 people were injured in the area.
Fires are a recurring problem during the hot, dry summer months in Attica.
Officials have suggested the current blazes may have been started by arsonists looking to loot abandoned homes.
“Fifteen fires had started simultaneously on three different fronts in Athens,” said government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos.
Greece, he added, had requested drones from the US to “detect any suspicious activity.”
Greece’s last major fire disaster was in 2007, when dozens of people were killed in the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
