Killer stages prison escape using copter

MANHUNT FOR FRENCH CRIMINAL

A NOTORIOUS French criminal serving 25 years for murder has staged a daring escape from a prison south of Paris using a helicopter.

A huge manhunt has begun for Redoine Faid around the French capital after he broke out of Reau Prison.

This is the second time he had escaped from a French prison, after he used explosives to blast his way out of jail on a previous occasion before recapture.

France’s justice ministry said 46-year-old Faid’s escape only took “a few minutes” and no-one was injured or taken hostage.

It said the helicopter landed in the courtyard as the prisoner was in the visiting room of the facility. A union representative at Reau Prison, Martial Delabroye, said that “two men dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and police armbands” entered the prison.

They used a grinding machine to open the door that directly leads to the visiting room, he said.

The helicopter was later found burned out in Garges-les-Gonesse, in the northern suburbs of Paris. Faid is believed to have left by car along with his accomplices.

In 2013, Faid blasted his way out of prison with explosives concealed in tissue packs. He was arrested at a hotel six weeks later.

Faid was sentenced to 25 years in 2010 after a young policewoman was killed during a botched robbery.