Some 96 prison officers will be deployed to schools on Hiroshima Prefecture's Mukaishima island where a fugitive who escaped from prison over a week ago is believed to be hiding, the justice minister said Tuesday.
The officers will keep watch around the clock on all nursery schools, kindergartens, elementary and junior high schools on the island, Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said.
The whereabouts of Tatsuma Hirao, 27, a convicted thief who escaped from jail nine days ago, remains unknown despite a search involving thousands of police officers on the forested, 22-square kilometer island.