India, Aug. 3 -- Eight juveniles escaped from a government-run observation home in Chhattisgarh's Mahasamund district in the early hours of Monday, prompting police to launch a search operation, officials said.

The boys, aged between 14 and 17 years, fled from the facility under the City Kotwali police station limits. According to officials, a police patrol inspected the observation home between 2am and 2.30am, and found everything in order. Hence, they believe the inmates would have escaped sometime after 3am.

There were 27 juveniles in the observation home at the time of the incident, and a watchman and a house father were on night duty.

Observation home superintendent Aparna Srivastava said the escapees include two juveniles each fr...