At least two prisoners and two security officers were killed in clashes at a jail in Western Bahr el Ghazal state on Monday afternoon, police said.
The incident at Wau Central Prison in the town of Wau occurred when prison warders tried to stop a "mass prison break", according to Police Commissioner Major General Samuel Ajuong Chuar.
Major General Ajuong said some prisoners had managed to disarm prison guards and used the weapons grabbed from them to blast their way out.
The state police commissioner further said 15 prisoners have been recaptured while 10 others managed to escape and remain at large.
Chuar has warned that the escaped inmates, some of them facing murder charges, pose a serious threat to the safety of the area.
He disclosed that the security force in Wau has been put on high alert and security beefed up in neighborhoods. “We are on high alert because we believe that the escaped inmates could be hiding here in neighbourhoods,” he said.
“The jailbreakers killed a security officer and a police officer. So this is what happened, and I want to tell the public that the random shooting was caused by inmates who attempted to escape from jail,” he said.
The senior police officer said investigations into the incident are underway.
Remijo Hassan, the Secretary-General of the now-defunct Wau state, confirmed the incident saying the security force managed to control the security situation in Wau.
“As members of the state security committee, we are on high alert to provide security in Wau town. I appeal to our citizens not to panic since the situation is under control,” he said.
The senior official urged residents of Wau to cooperate with security personnel to recapture the escaped inmates.
According to reports, South Sudan is grappling with congestion in prisons due to the backlog of cases in the courts.