TWO ESCAPED prisoners were still at large last night after they disappeared while under supervision from prison officers in Co Roscommon on Tuesday afternoon.
The brothers had been temporarily released on compassionate grounds to attend a funeral home to view the remains of a relative.
Both had been serving three-year sentences at Castlerea Prison on separate assault charges.
The men were being escorted by prison officers at Smyth’s funeral home on Mart Road in Roscommon town when an incident involving up to 40 other people occurred at about 2.15pm.
The men are understood to have absconded during a scuffle in the funeral home. The officers were said to have been “pushed and shoved” in the incident but there were no reported injuries.
A spokesman yesterday confirmed two prisoners had escaped while on an escorted visit to a funeral home. “Gardaí were immediately notified and the Irish Prisons Service has initiated its own investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.”
