A notorious gangster who was once France’s most wanted, has pulled off an epic jailbreak, escaping from prison by helicopter, according to the Telegraph.
Rédoine Faïd, 46, was flown out of the Réau prison located in Paris’ south-eastern suburbs on Sunday, aided by two heavily armed men, local police said. A Belgium-registered helicopter landed in the courtyard of the prison, believed to be the only spot not protected by a net, sources told Reuters.
Faid was being visited by his brother in prison when the men burst into the room on Sunday morning and extracted him. A third man waited in the helicopter in the prison courtyard to watch over the pilot, a flying instructor whose aircraft the men hijacked in a nearby airfield and whom they forced to take part in the dramatic operation.
A union representative at Reau told BFM television that "two men dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and police armbands" entered the prison to look for Faid and used a grinding machine to cut open the door that directly leads to the visiting room.
Le Monde newspaper reported the gunmen took about two minutes to remove Faïd from the prison. The helicopter that was used for the daring escape flew across the Paris region from the jail southeast of the capital, before being dumped not far from Charles de Gaulle airport to the northeast of the city.
The aircraft was then set alight but was only partly damaged and the fire was extinguished when police found it a short time later. Media reports said the pilot had been released and was not injured.
Hours later, the gangsters remained on the run, with a massive manhunt underway across the country.
Gunman and Faïd abandoned this helicopter after fleeing from Réau prison in Seine-et-Marne. (Source: AFP/Daily Mirror)
According to The Telegraph, the courtyard it landed in was the only one not fitted with anti-helicopter nets as it is used by inmates only when they are being admitted or released from the jail.
Spectacular helicopter jailbreaks became a regular embarrassment for French penal authorities until the late 2000s, but have petered out since prisoner exercise yards in most jails were equipped with nets to prevent choppers from landing.
Front view of the burned-out helicopter. (Source: AFP/Daily Mirror)
After the helicopter that flew Faid out of jail was torched, its occupants fled by car in a black Renault Megane which they later dumped in the underground car park of a shopping centre near the airport.
They switched to a white van with the company name Enedis marked on the vehicle. A huge manhunt has been launched to track them down. All police and gendarme units across Paris were put on alert and ordered to set up checkpoints that “take into account the dangerousness of the fugitive and his possible accomplices.”
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