Over 100 drug addicts escape rehab center in southern Vietnam, again

133 inmates broke out of a drug rehabilitation center in the southern province of Dong Nai on November 6.

“The situation is tense. Dozens of drug addicts have managed to escape from the center,” said Ho Van Loc, deputy director of Dong Nai Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. "Police officers have been deployed to stabilize the situation."

So far, 61 inmates have been returned to the center, which sits about 100km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

By Sunday afternoon, center staff had managed to extinguish a number of fires set by the escapees as a squad of 200 policemen descended on the premises. 

Trouble began at 10:00 a.m. when the inmates began screaming, smashing through walls and breaking down doors so they could gather on the facility's football pitch.

Next, they began pouring onto National Higway 1A.

On October 23, more than 500 drug addicts staged a massive breakout from the same center. Most were arrested and returned to the facility.

The Dong Nai center currently houses nearly 1,500 inmates -- twice its designed capacity.

Several large escapes have been reported across Vietnam in recent years, following a government order to increase the period of mandatory rehabilitation from one to two years.

Vietnam currently has around 180,000 addicts, many of whom are intravenous drug users.