Eight dead in attempted DR Congo jail break

Eight people died and 44 were injured on Sunday during an attempted jail break from a prison in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, police said. The casualties happened at the Bukavu central prison after a grenade exploded in the hands of an inmate, senior regional police official Gaston Luzembo told AFP. Four of the dead were civilians and four military, he added. "A colonel inmate gave a grenade to a civilian inmate and told him to throw it in front of doors to create panic to facilitate the escape," Gaston Luzembo, a senior regional police official, told AFP. "Not being a military man, the civilian took the pin out of the grenade but kept it and it exploded in his hands," Luzembo said. "There were eight dead -- four civilians and four military," he said. "There were also 44 injured, including 32 civilians, with the rest military." Prison breaks and attempted escapes are frequent in DR Congo. In September, nearly 1,000 inmates escaped from a prison in the eastern Katanga province after a spectacular raid by masked gunmen to spring a militia leader from death row.