RABAT, April 7: Nine Muslim extremists serving jail terms of up to life for the 2003 Casablanca bombings that killed 45 people tunnelled their way out of a Moroccan prison on Monday.

The Kenitra “prison administration noted the escape today morning and all measures have been taken to find the escaped prisoners and establish who was responsible”, the justice ministry said in a statement quoted by the MAP state news agency.

The Casablanca bombings were the deadliest ever in Morocco, killing 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers, and injuring scores more.

An official representing a group looking after the welfare of jailed Islamic militants said the fugitives had escaped from the Kenitra prison, north of Rabat, after Fajr prayers.

The prisoners tunnelled their way out, according to a source in the ministry of the interior, who said that details of the fugitives had been released to help the search, while border guards had been placed on alert.

All nine men came from Casablanca and seven of them were sentenced to life imprisonment, while two were given 20 years, Abderrahim Mahtade of the Annasir association, which supports Islamist prisoners, said.

Mahtade said they had left a letter behind them denouncing the injustice of which they said they were victims and explaining that having resorted in vain to all legal measures, the nine men were left with only one option.

“We assume responsibility for our actions and there should be no search for accomplices among detainees or in the prison administration,” the letter said, according to Mahtade. “We will hurt nobody, but we are glad to get our beloved freedom back.”

An estimated 900 militants have been detained in some 10 Moroccan prisons. On Monday many were on hunger strike for 24 hours, staging the latest of a series of protests over bad detention conditions.

Last December a drug baron called Mohamed Ouazzani, alias Nini, strolled out of Kenitra prison unmolested and the justice ministry was informed only a week later of his disappearance.

In January, eight prison guards were sentenced to sentences ranging from two months to two years for abetting his escape.—AFP