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A Dane convicted of torturing and murdering a Swedish journalist in his homemade submarine escaped dramatically but briefly from a Copenhagen suburban prison and reportedly took a hostage to escape before the police recovered him.
Peter Madsen was quickly arrested near Herstedvester Prison, where he is serving a life sentence for the murder of Kim Wall.
Nils Meilvang / AP
A police office observes Peter Madsen sitting on the side of a road after being detained following a failed escape attempt in Albertslund, Denmark.
Justice Minister Nick Haekkerup called the escape attempt “very serious.”
“It goes without saying that convicted prisoners who have committed the worst possible crimes should not be able to escape the custody of the authorities,” Haekkerup tweeted.
READ MORE:
* Danish diver Peter Madsen will not appeal the conviction for the murder of the Swedish journalist
* Danish inventor sentenced to life imprisonment for torturing and murdering Swedish reporter Kim Wall
* Danish inventor Peter Madsen accused of killing a reporter in his submarine
* Danish police find arm in the sea, link it to a murder case in a submarine
* The body parts found by the Danish police are from the Swedish journalist Kim Wall.
* Journalist Kim Wall was accidentally killed by the hatch cover, says the submarine’s owner.
* Headless torso of dead Swedish journalist found naked, police search for clothes
Police said Madsen appeared to be carrying fake weapons, including a “fake” explosive belt.
“When we arrived, he threw something that looked like a firearm,” said Mogens Lauridsen, chief of operations for the Copenhagen suburban police.
Nils Meilvang / AP
Later, police officers found in Madsen “what appears to be a belt with explosives,” Lauridsen said. They handcuffed him, officers stepped back, and Madsen stood on the side of a road as a bomb squad investigated the belt, Lauridsen said.
Madsen, one of Denmark’s most notorious criminals, was captured about five minutes after the escape and about 500 meters from the facility. The prison staff who followed him saw that he had gotten into a passing white van and reported it to the police.
Lauridsen said they don’t believe Madsen had an accomplice.
Later, police officers found in Madsen “what appears to be a belt with explosives,” Lauridsen said. They handcuffed him, officers stepped back, and Madsen stood on the side of a road as a bomb squad investigated the belt, Lauridsen said.
“It appears to be a fake belt,” he said, adding that it was unclear if Madsen had done it or if the object looked like a firearm.
Nils Meilvang / AP
Peter Madsen was captured after a failed escape attempt in Albertslund, Denmark.
Prison Director Hanne Hoegh Rasmussen told a news conference that the escape was being investigated and that she could not immediately confirm media reports that Madsen took a prison psychologist hostage inside the prison. .
“No one has been physically injured,” Hoegh Rasmussen said, adding that prison staff were receiving psychological support.
The facility has 161 cells and a wing with inmates who have psychiatric, psychological or sexual behavior problems.
In 2018, Madsen was sentenced in Copenhagen City Court to life in prison for killing Wall, a 30-year-old Swedish reporter whom he lured aboard his homemade submarine in 2017 with the promise of an interview. He dismembered his body and threw it into the sea.
Mads Claus Rasmussen / AP
Copenhagen Police Mogens Lauridsen speaks to the media outside the Albertslund Police Station.
Madsen lost his appeal, shortly after apologizing to the victim’s family who was present in appeals court. The sensational case has taken hold of Scandinavia.
Madsen has denied murdering Wall. He claims that he was accidentally killed inside the submarine, but has confessed to dumping parts of his body into the Baltic Sea.
Life sentences in Denmark generally mean 16 years in prison, but convicts are reassessed to determine if they would pose a danger to society if released and if they can stay longer.
A self-taught engineer, Madsen built rockets in his spare time but never went to college. In 2008, he launched his homemade UC3 Nautilus submarine.
Wall had planned to interview Madsen for a story about a rocket program he founded in 2014, with the goal of building a crowdfunded rocket to launch into space. But when he finally texted her, his cash flow had depleted and he had canceled the planned test launch.
