Gunmen attacked Haiti's national prison Saturday and drove away with jailed former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and other inmates linked to ousted ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, media reports said.

Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert appeared to have been taken out at gunpoint by the attackers, who sent poorly armed prison guards fleeing the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince.

An unknown number of prisoners escaped and one guard was killed during the attack, according to a police officer.

Residents of the area said the heavily armed gunmen arrived in three vehicles. They entered the prison shooting and guards fled.

Neither the police nor the interim government, which jailed Neptune and Privert on charges of violence, made any statement on the prison break.

International police who are part of a 7,000-strong Brazilian-led UN force trying to keep peace in the chaotic and impoverished Caribbean country arrived later and began interviewing witnesses.

But according to a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force, Neptune and Pivert were later turned over to UN soldiers and are now in the protective custody of the UN.
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2005)