US police detain nine juveniles who fled detention centre

WASHINGTON: Nine youths who broke out of a juvenile detention centre in Pennsylvania have been recaptured, US police said on Monday, with four of them knocking on a stranger´s door after one night on the run.

The incident was the latest involving a detention facility in the eastern state, where a massive manhunt last week captured murderer Danilo Cavalcante who spent 13 days evading authorities after his escape.

“All nine of the escapees from last night were picked up within the last two hours,” most of them within a few miles (kilometers) of the Abraxas Academy, a juvenile facility in Morgantown, northwest of Philadelphia, said Pennsylvania state trooper David Beohm.

State police and other law enforcement officers had been searching for the group that escaped at around 8:00 pm Sunday night. Four of the youths, after wandering in thick woods to avoid a police cordon, essentially gave themselves up by banging on a stranger´s front door.

The other five stole a vehicle and were engaged in a brief chase with police before they were detained, he said. “They´ll all be charged with escape,” in addition to any other crimes they may have committed while on the run, according to Beohm.