Germany: Cross-border prison escape ends with fatal crash

PTI, Sep 8, 2022, 8:39 AM IST

Credit: Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

A German man’s escape from a prison day-release scheme resulted in a cross-border manhunt that ended hours later in a fatal crash in neighbouring France, police said on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old fugitive hijacked a car at gunpoint in Mannheim, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of Berlin, on Monday, forcing the female driver to take off down a highway before leaving her at a rest stop.

The man subsequently caused a crash involving several vehicles, continuing his getaway by hijacking a second car belonging to a man who stopped to offer help. The fugitive then drove across the border to France, where he was involved in a head-on collision near the town of Nancy and died, police said.

The inmate had been in an open prison and was on day release when he escaped, officials said. Police couldn’t immediately say how the man had obtained a firearm or how much of his sentence he had left to serve.