Submarine murderer Peter Madsen surrounded by armed officers after escaping Danish prison

Danish submarine killer Peter Madsen has been seized by police on a street in central Copenhagen, after an audacious jail-break on Tuesday morning.

The 49-year-old escaped before 10am, and was on the loose for more than two hours, although he only made it about 500m from prison before he was surrounded by police.

"The arrest operation on Nyvej is over, and an arrested person has been driven away from the scene," police in Copenhagen said on Twitter shortly after 1pm. They said they would give further details at a press conference this afternoon.

According to the BT tabloid, the killer took a hostage in the prison who he threatened with a pistol-like object, who was reported to have been a psychologist.

He was then seized less than a kilometre from the prison by a squad of specialist armed police officers, after a long stand-off during which he reportedly claimed to be carrying a bomb. He has now been driven back to the prison by police.

"We are currently working on Nyvej in Albertslund, where a man has been arrested after an attempted escape," the police wrote on Twitter at 11.20am local time.

"We have investigations ongoing at the site, which has been cordoned off." But according to the BT tabloid Madsen had yet to be seized at midday, and was instead surrounded by armed police. Bomb technicians were also on the scene.

Before the murder, Madsen, who described himself as an artist and inventor, had made a name for himself in Denmark and internationally both for his series of self-built submarines, and for his plan to send himself into space on a self-built rocket.

Madsen was convicted in April 2018 of murdering the 30-year-old journalist Kim Wall as she interviewed him on board his submarine in August 2017.

In a documentary that aired in September, he confessed for the first time to the killing, after having insisted during the trial that her death was an accident.

"There is only one who is guilty, and that is me," Madsen said in the documentary.

In a case that made headlines around the world, Madsen had however admitted to the court that he chopped up her corpse and threw her body parts into the sea.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/submarine-murderer-peter-madsen-surrounded-105554279.html