Maputo — One of the prisoners who escaped from the Maputo top security jail in December has been re-arrested - but not before he had acquired a gun and resumed his criminal activities, according to a report in Wednesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias".

28 year old Antonio Muianga had been serving a ten year sentence for armed robbery. He was among the 19 prisoners who escaped from the prison on 23 December, under circumstances that are far from clear.

Muianga and two other criminals attempted to steal a Toyota minibus on Monday night. The bus was ferrying passengers to the commercial part of the city, when the thieves demanded that he stop the vehicle and hand it over to them.

When the driver resisted, Muianga, and one of his accomplices, Domingos Fumo, pulled out Makarov pistols and threatened to kill him. The driver then yielded to their demands - but a police unit appeared on the scene and intervened. One of the criminals escaped, but Muianga and Fumo were arrested, and the police seized their pistols.

It is not known where they obtained the pistols, but Muianga has a record of dealing in firearms. Before his arrest, he was known to have attempted to sell an AK-47 assault rifle in South Africa.