Yulin - Eighteen drug detainees at a mandatory detox center in Xingye county of Yulin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region were caught within 24 hours after managing to escape from the center, according to the local public security bureau.

The 18 detainees broke out of their cells through a tunnel they had dug, then climbed over the 5-meter-high walls and escaped from the Xingye Mandatory Detox Center on the evening of June 24, said Li Zhi, deputy director at the Xingye Public Security Bureau.

They had dug tunnels with bed boards and hid the earth under the beds, Li added.

Police captured them in Bobai, another county in Yulin.

The detainees were in a 2-year mandatory drug rehab treatment.