Robber blasted his way out of jail

EUROPE-WIDE POLICE ALERT FOR PRISONER WHO TOOK GUARDS HOSTAGE THEN USED EXPLOSIVES TO BLOW DOWN DOORS ARMED police are patrolling airports in the north of France and Belgium after notorious

robber Redoine Faïd blasted his way out of Sequedin prison in Lille. The robber used a handgun to take four guards hostage before using explosives to blow open five doors and escape wearing

a guard’s uniform. Once outside the prison Faïd was driven off by an accomplice with at least one of the hostages, who they dumped beside a road. They set fire to the getaway vehicle and

jumped into another, which police are still trying to trace. He is thought to have had the explosives and gun smuggled in to him and there were calls for the resignation of Justice Minister

Christiane Taubira, with Front National leader Marine Le Pen calling her a “dangerous woman” for France. Faïd is notorious in France for a series of robberies and then writing a book about

his life of crime. He was returned to prison after breaking bail conditions and was thought to have organised a 2010 robbery in which a policewoman was killed. Le Pen denounced the escape as

a consequence of the “lax Left” and UMP MPs attacked the “growing insecurity” in jails. However, prison officers’ union FO-Pénitentiaire said automatic searches of prisoners after family

visits had been banned under the previous UMP government. The prison is just a few kilometres from the Belgian border and a European arrest warrant has been issued. Photo: Daily motion video

on Faïd