The 24-year-old male prisoner remains hospitalized after he was found seriously injured on a road in a bush area, outside a prison compound in ‘Eua on 29 April. 'Eua Police allege he escaped.

Police in Nuku’alofa today said, the prisoner is still at Niu'eiki Hospital after sustaining head injuries and serious body injuries.

The latest information from 'Eua Police allege that he had escaped from the prison and went drinking alcohol outside of the prison compound. The last he remembered was returning back to prison, then he woke up at the hospital and did not know what happened, said police.

The investigation continues.

The prisoner who comes from Tokomololo in Tongatapu was last seen at around 5:00pm, when he went to take a shower. At 6:00pm when the warden was doing the head count he was found to have disappeared. They found him shortly afterwards lying on the road at the bush area in Loupata, close to the prison.