Three escapees scale the fence at NT quarantine facility
Police are searching for three escapees who absconded from a Covid quarantine facility in the Northern Territory in a dramatic early morning dash.
A police operation remains underway near the Centre for National Resilience, south of Darwin, on Wednesday morning.
"Three people from the centre from Centre for National Resilience scaled the fence and fled the area at about 4:40am this morning,” a police spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo News Australia.
Police are at the Howard Springs facility searching the area, declaring on Facebook at 9:30am that a "police operation is underway".
Howard Springs is a large, open-air facility that is currently being used to quarantine Australians returning from overseas.
It's also housing a number of residents from Katherine and surrounding areas, where an outbreak of Covid-19 erupted last month.
As of Tuesday, there were 58 cases of Covid-19 in the NT.
Earlier this week, a man in his 30s at Howard Springs was diagnosed with the new Omicron variant of Covid-19.
He had arrived in Darwin on a repatriation flight from South Africa last week and his positive virus result was confirmed on Friday.
Currently, international arrivals on repatriation flights are required to quarantine at Howard Springs for 14 days.
Travellers who arrive on standard international flights into Darwin Airport are permitted to quarantine for seven days at their homes or another suitable location.
UPDATE: Three escapees have been arrested by police, authorities announced.
All three tested negative for Covid-19 yesterday, NT Police said.
with AAP
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
