NEW DELHI // Scores of inmates staged a mass breakout from an Indian young offenders detention centre on Monday by tying bedsheets together and scaling down the walls of the three-storey building.

A total of 91 inmates managed to flee the facility in Meerut overnight, although 35 have since been recaptured, said the city’s superintendent of police Om Prakash.

Those still on the run included criminals convicted of murder, rape, theft and banditry. All are under the age of 18.

“They removed an iron grille from a window at the back of the building while police were guarding the front,” Mr Prakash said from Meerut in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

“This was done so professionally that no one got a whiff.”

Police say the break-out was staged some time between 1am and 3am local time and the alarm was only raised when officers who were patrolling near the centre spotted some of the fugitives trying to flag down public transport.

Inmates from the same centre beat a policeman to death in December after he objected to their lewd behaviour with a woman during a court trial.

More than 31,000 inmates are being held at young offenders institutes in India, according to the latest official statistics.

Although they are meant to be under lock and key overnight, inmates usually sleep in dormitories rather than individual cells.

* Agence France-Presse