RIYADH, July 8: Seven extremists escaped from the high-security Malaz prison, it was officially announced here on Saturday.

“Seven detainees at (the) Malaz prison in Riyadh, held in connection with security cases, were able to leave the detention centre,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted an Interior Ministry statement as saying.

The names of the escaped prisoners and circumstances in which they escaped were not clear. The Saudi government also did not say when they escaped from the detention centre.

An interior ministry spokesman, however, said the suspects were religious extremists, adding that they had been arrested in separate incidents over the past year.

“They are extremists, they believe in the Takfiri (school of) thought,” spokesman Mansour Al Turki told the Associated Press news agency.

The interior ministry statement said: “If they [the escaped prisoners] do not return to the detention centre, they will not be eligible for the amnesty granted by the king and will become wanted by security forces”.