Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today that new lock-ups would be built after a "shameful" breakout of prisoners for the third time in a month.

Abdullah, who is also Home Affairs home minister in charge of police, said he felt "embarrassed and angry" and had sought an explanation from the country's deputy police chief Jamil Johari.

"I have told him (Jamil) that the matter should not have occurred and should not recur... and he had said that all measures, efforts will be taken so that it will not be repeated," Abdullah said.

"These incidents are shameful."

Abdullah said the government planned to build more secure lock-ups in each district to overcome the problem of breakouts.

"The proposal is that two lock-ups which are big, orderly, secure, that cannot be broken and equipped with monitoring systems and so on would be built in every district," he said.

"This must be built immediately because the need for them is urgent at the moment."

Disciplinary action

Disciplinary action would also be taken against police personnel on duty at the time of the breakouts for their carelessness, he added.

In the latest incident Monday, two men detained in connection with the robbery of passengers of an Airport Coach to the international airport on Feb 22 escaped through the air-conditioning conduit in their cell.

Some 500 police personnel were reported to be involved in a major operation to track the two fugitives, Bernama said.

Their escape came two days after 11 prisoners ripped open the zinc roof of their cells with their bare hands last Saturday and disappeared.

Earlier February, some 150 out of 200 Africans detained in a crime swoop escaped in February, apparently because the police were intimidated by their size. (AFP)