An inmate escaped from a maximum security prison in the Cameroon capital Thursday, prison administrators said.

Two others were stopped from scaling over the prison's concrete security wall in what looked like a well-organised jailbreak, one warder said.

The identities of the escapee and the stopped inmates were not immediately available and prison authorities were not giving more detail.

The Kondengui prison, located in the heart of Yaounde, is the second most populous in the country after the New Bell prison in Douala.

It houses some of the country’s most hardened criminals, including people on death roll. But over the past three years, it has also become the destination for top government officials jailed for corruption.

Jailbreaks are not uncommon at the facilities where officials complain of overcrowding and lack of a strong enough force to watch the place.

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