More than 100 escaped prisoners posed a “serious threat” to law and order in the British Virgin Islands in the wake of Hurricane Irma, the government said on Tuesday.
“We had a serious threat of the complete breakdown of law and order in the British Virgin Islands,” foreign office minister Alan Duncan told parliament.
“The prison was breached, over 100 very serious prisoners escaped,” Duncan said, adding that British marines were deployed on Friday to “protect the governor and everything else about law and order.”
He said the marines were “significantly reinforced” over the weekend, allowing Britain to maintain law and order, “which at one point could
have dramatically threatened the already unfortunate plight of those who had been hit by the hurricane.”
Duncan did not say how many escaped prisoners remained at large.
He said the death toll had climbed to five in the British Virgin Islands and four in nearby Anguilla, while the deployment of British troops in the Caribbean had risen to about 1,000.
