Warangu shot dead

 ONE of the three high-risk prisoners who escaped from Bomana prison on Tuesday is dead while bank robber William Kapris and another are still on the run.

Michael Warangu is believed to have been shot during a confrontation with police and prison officers on Tuesday afternoon.

Kapris and Raphael Walimini are still at large.

The three men, armed with pistols, walked out Bomana prison around midday on Tuesday this week after taking hostage of a CS medical orderly.

It is believed that Warangu was heavily wounded and died from loss of blood and his body was found floating in Laloki River yesterday morning.

NCD and Central Assistant Police Commissioner Jim Andrews confirmed the death yesterday afternoon and said that the body was now at the Port Moresby General Hospital morgue.

Warangu, 26, from Rabaul, East New Britain, was serving a life sentence for murder.

Andrews said both Warangu and Kapris were wounded after a gun battle with combined armed forces which included police, defence and CS officers on Tuesday afternoon along the Laloki River shortly after escaping from the Bomana jail.

He said the area had been enclosed and with swift action by the armed forces they steadily closed in on the two escapees.

“Since this morning the report on the ground is that Kapris and Raphael Walimini are still in the Laloki area near the Bomana jail area and the combined armed forces have enclosed the area,” Andrews said.

“I have deployed the police helicopter to do surveillance around the area and it is highly likely that the prisoners will not get very far as Kapris has been wounded as well.”

Andrews confirmed late yesterday afternoon that the man hunt was still on for Kapris and Walimini.