TEHRAN: Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a jail in southwest Iran on Saturday in an apparent bid to help prisoners break out, wounding three guards and up to 16 others, media reported.

Police colonel Aziz Abadi said three prisoners managed to escape from the central prison in the city of Ilam, but that one of them was later recaptured, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported. It happened in a region bordering Iraq.

“The culprits, who used getaway cars to escape from the scene of the incident, are at large now and the police are after them,” the official IRNA news agency quoted provincial Governor Nourollah Arjomandi as saying.

Arjomandi said the blast was caused by a rocket-propelled grenade aimed at one of the prison’s walls, but that there were no deaths, IRNA said.

“The explosion caused damages to the residential units around and broke window panes within a radio of 500 metres and a number of cars were damaged,” Arjomandi said.

State television said the suspected motive of the blast was to free a number of prisoners and that at least five people were wounded. They received medical care but were later allowed to leave hospital.

Mehr put the number of wounded at 19, including three prison guards.

Ilam, which is also the name of the province, is a mountainous region bordering Iraq, and home to tribal people as well as ethnic Kurds. – Reuters