Police in Shaoguan in South China's Guangdong province are urging public support in a manhunt for a male inmate who escaped from the local Beijiang Prison this morning.

Li Mengjun, a Hunan native who is about 1.72 meters tall, wore a black short-sleeve shirt, black trousers and white shoes when fleeing, the Beijing Morning Post quoted a police source as saying.

The man has a bat-patterned tattoo on his left arm, it added.

Li originally got a suspended death sentence that was later commuted to a 19-year jail term. But the report didn't mention what crime he had committed.