480+ Inmates Escape Afghan prisons

Over 480 Afghan inmates escape a prison via a tunnel dug by Taliban insurgents. The 1,000-foot tunnel was being dug for months. The hole in the prison cell allowed each prisoner to escape one man at a time. The hole had been made by a car jack.

The prison was Sarposa prison in Kandahar, "the birthplace of the Taliban". The officials did not find out about the escape until a half hour after all prisoners had already escaped.

"The militants began digging the tunnel about five months ago from a house within shooting distance of the prison guard towers. It was not immediately clear whether they lived in the house while they dug. They meticulously plotted the tunnel's course around police checkpoints and major roads, the insurgent group said in a statement.

The diggers finally broke through to the prison cells around 11 p.m. Sunday night, and a handful of inmates who knew of the plan unlocked cells and ushered hundreds of inmates to freedom without a shot being fired. "