A notorious gangster has escaped by helicopter from a prison in the Paris region, the French authorities say.<\/p>\n
Redoine Faid was helped by several heavily armed men who created a diversion at the prison entrance while the helicopter landed in the courtyard.<\/p>\n
The helicopter flew to the nearby Gonesse area, where it was found by local police.<\/p>\n
Faid, 46, has been serving a 25-year sentence for a failed robbery during which a police officer was killed.<\/p>\n
This is his second prison break: in 2013, he escaped after seizing four guards as human shields and blowing several doors off with dynamite.<\/p>\n
He staged that escape less than half an hour after arriving at a prison in northern France<\/a>, and spent six weeks on the run.<\/p>\n In 2009 Faid wrote a book about his experiences of growing up in Paris’s crime-ridden suburbs and graduating into a life of law-breaking.<\/p>\n He claimed to have turned his back on criminality, but a year later was involved in the failed robbery for which he was serving a sentence at the prison in R\u00e9au in the Seine-et-Marne region.<\/p>\n Faid and his accomplices escaped from the prison courtyard – which was not protected by a net – without injuring anyone.<\/p>\n Armed men took the prisoner from the visitors’ room, where he was talking to his brother Brahim, before fleeing by air.<\/p>\n French outlet BFMTV reports that the men, hooded and dressed in black, burst into the prison at around 11:20 local time (09:20 GMT)<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday.<\/p>\n They had earlier taken a helicopter instructor hostage from a small flying club in Fontenay-Tr\u00e9signy, where he was waiting for a student, and ordered him to go to the prison. Reports suggest the pilot has been released and was taken to hospital in shock.<\/p>\n Faid initially got out of the helicopter and into a black Renault Megane which was seen heading for the A1 motorway.<\/p>\n That car was later found burnt out at a shopping centre car park in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a suburb of Paris.<\/p>\n Early on Sunday afternoon, French media said Faid had switched getaway vehicles and was now in a white company van.<\/p>\n A police search is under way across the whole Paris region. “Everything is being done to locate the fugitive,” an interior ministry official said.<\/p>\n Born in 1972, Faid grew up in a notoriously rough part of Paris.<\/p>\n In the 1990s, he ran a gang involved in armed robbery and extortion in the French capital. He has previously said his lifestyle was inspired by Hollywood gangster films, including the Al Pacino thriller Scarface.<\/p>\n He is said to be devoted to Robert De Niro movies and the stylised crime thrillers of US director Michael Mann.<\/p>\n He once approached Mann, who helmed the 1995 gangster film Heat, at a Paris film festival and told him: “You were my technical adviser.”<\/p>\n Faid claimed to have watched the movie dozens of times to hone his skills as a bank robber.<\/p>\n French police have nicknamed the gangster “L’\u00c9crivain” – “the writer” – in a nod to his autobiography and subsequent media tour.<\/p>\n One of Faid’s most recent prison supervisors said he was never in conflict with guards, but that “we must always be wary”.<\/p>\n “In the corner of his mind, he never lost the idea of escaping. Behind all his manners – he is very polite – he always hid his game,” the supervisor said.<\/p>\n The fugitive is not the first to escape a French jail by helicopter.<\/p>\n In 2001, three armed robbers fled a prison in Draguignan, southern France<\/a>, after an accomplice hijacked a helicopter from an airfield in nearby St Tropez.<\/p>\n Two years later, inmates accused of running an international drugs ring escaped a remand centre near Aix-en-Provence<\/a>\u00a0by similar means.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gangster inspired by Hollywood crime<\/h2>\n
Timeline of a jailbreaker<\/h2>\n
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