More than 200 drug addicts are on the run after a mass escape from a rehabilitation centre in Vietnam.

Security guards were overpowered by the inmates and were forced to open the main gate to let them out.

Two inmates initiated the breakout, which saw 562, including 58 women, escape from the centre in Dong Nai province, in the south east region of the country on Sunday.

Police managed to recapture 332, but 230 are still missing from the compound.

The centre accommodates 1,481 inmates.


Image: The rehabilitation centre was damaged during the breakout

The Vietnamese government enforces compulsory treatment for drug addicts.

Conditions in the country's rehab centres have been condemned by the US-based Human Rights Watch group, which says they should be closed.

The treatment centres are "forced labour camps" where inmates do not receive proper health care and are often subjected to physical violence, the group says.

The government's programmes involve education, communist ideology and physical labour for up to two years. They have a high failure rate and some 90% of addicts relapse within five years.

It is estimated there are 200,000 drug addicts in Vietnam, many of them heroin users.