Afternoon:
9°c
French danger men go on run after blowing off prison doors
Peter Allen in Paris16 Feb 2009
Two of the most dangerous prisoners in France were on the run today after they used explosives to blast their way out of a high-security jail.
Christophe Khider, 37, and El Hadj Top, 28, captured two guards as hostages before blowing steel doors off the Moulins prison in the central Allier region.
Both men are described by police as "armed, extremely dangerous, and last seen heading for Paris".
They had been in the exercise courtyard during visiting time, raising the prospect that guns and ammunition had been smuggled in by a visitor.
"Their methods were direct and brutal," said a police source. "One of the prisoners was armed with a handgun. He held it towards the head of a guard. Explosives were then placed on a prison door and it was blown off its hinges.
"The men were threatening to kill anyone who got in their way. Both are serving long sentences for armed robbery, so their threats were taken very seriously indeed.
"They are ruthless -certainly two of the most dangerous prisoners in France."
Khider has been in prison since 1999, serving a sentence for an armed robbery in which a hostage was killed.
In 2007, he received a further 15 years for attempting to break out of another prison. Top is also a convicted armed robber who would not have been eligible for parole until 2020.
The source continued: "When they got out of the prison perimeter they got into a getaway car. There was a high-speed chase with a number of accidents en route. When the getaway car got towards Paris, the prison guard hostages were released at the side of the road."
Jean-Pierre Maurice, the deputy regional governor of the Allier region, confirmed that the men got out of Moulins prison at about 4.30pm yesterday.
France's elite GIPN tactical police unit had been mobilised to recapture them.
A paramilitary gendarme force set up road blocks and deployed two helicopters in the operation.
It is the latest in a history of spectacular Gallic jail breaks. In 2000 an inmate got out of Moulins after a helicopter piloted by a fellow criminal landed in the exercise yard.
In 1973, bank robber Jacques Mesrin, once known as France's most wanted man, escaped from a court by taking the judge hostage.
Five years later, he and an accomplice escaped from Paris's La Sante prison dressed as prison guards. Mesrin's story is the subject of a two-part film, Public Enemy Number One, being shown in France.
Reader views (2)
Anyone got a number for Clouseau?
- John Wright, London, 16/02/2009 16:50
Report abuse
"Armed, extremely dangerous - and last seen heading for Paris"
Presumably they don't want to miss the Spring collections?!
- Roz, Chamonix, France, 16/02/2009 13:48
Report abuse
