UPDATE: Inmate Captured In Chico Hours After Escape

SUSANVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A minimum security inmate has been captured less than 12 hours after his escape from a Northern California prison system conservation camp.

Authorities say 28-year-old Tou Yeng Thao was arrested at about 4:30 a.m. Monday in Chico. State prison officials are taking him to the Susanville prison.

Salt Creek Conservation Camp officials say Thao went missing at the Tehama County facility on Sunday afternoon. The facility is just outside Paskenta, some 50 miles from Chico and 110 miles north of Sacramento.

Thao was sent to the conservation camp in July from Butte County for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon. He was scheduled to be paroled in about seven months.