2,900 French Policemen In Manhunt For Thief Who Escaped From Prison With Helicopter
An extensive manhunt involving some 2,900 police officers has been launched in France to track the 46-year-old career thief Redoine Faid, who staged the most audacious jailbreak in recent time: escaping prison by helicopter.
The manhunt was launched Monday as details emerged of the daring prison escape, by the notorious robber, who said he drew inspiration from characters in movies such as “Scarface”.
The escape by the convict, dubbed the “Jailbreak King” by French media, having already broken out of prison in 2013, has raised questions about security at French jails.
Faid was sprung from his prison in Reau, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of Paris, on Sunday by two heavily armed accomplices who used smoke bombs and angle grinders to break through doors and whisk him to a waiting helicopter.
The escape brings to at least five the number of jailbreaks in France in the past three decades involving helicopters.
Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told Europe 1 radio that she had sent inspectors to the prison “to see whether the security measures were defective so that we can rectify them”.
Belloubet suggested that Faid had been left in the same prison for too long, giving the career criminal, who has said he found his “calling” at the age of 12, time to plot his escape.
Sunday’s drama began at an airfield northeast of Paris where two men posing as flight school students hijacked a helicopter and ordered the instructor to fly them to Reau prison, stopping off en route to pick up a third accomplice.
On arrival at the high-security facility, the pilot landed in the courtyard — the only part of the prison not fitted with anti-helicopter nets.
Two black-clad men armed with assault rifles then alighted and set off smoke bombs before breaking into the visiting room, where Faid was meeting with his brother who was later taken into custody.
The wardens, who were unarmed, fled and raised the alarm.
But within 10 minutes Faid was gone, cheered on by his fellow inmates.
The helicopter was found …