The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty says that de­spite the in­ci­dent in­volv­ing the crash of a he­li­copter, it is look­ing for­ward to a suc­cess­ful re­cap­ture of eight pris­on­ers who es­caped from the Gold­en Grove prison in Arou­ca.

The min­istry is­sued a state­ment Wednes­day af­ter­noon say­ing that from ear­ly this morn­ing, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty was briefed by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice on the es­cape of pris­on­ers.

It says that the var­i­ous arms of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry are work­ing to­geth­er to re­cap­ture the es­caped pris­on­ers.

"This ef­fort is on­go­ing and up­dates will be pro­vid­ed by the Prison Ser­vice and the Po­lice Ser­vice as ap­pro­pri­ate," the state­ment says.

"Any­one with in­for­ma­tion should pro­vide same im­me­di­ate­ly to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice," it adds.

The state­ment says that as part of the op­er­a­tions, a Na­tion­al He­li­copter Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (NHSL) he­li­copter that was be­ing uti­lized in the search, ex­pe­ri­enced tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties whilst in­flight and made a “hard land­ing”.

"For­tu­nate­ly, there were no fa­tal­i­ties and no se­ri­ous in­juries to those on board the he­li­copter," the state­ment says.

It says that the man­hunt for the es­capees will con­tin­ue un­der the su­per­vi­sion and lead­er­ship of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice.

"We at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty look for­ward to the suc­cess­ful re­cap­ture of the es­caped pris­on­ers," it adds.