Robber blasted his way out of jail

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