3 held after Quebec helicopter jail break

2013-03-18 09:07

Police vehicles block a road just outside the town of Chertsey, Quebec, during a search for escaped prisoners. (The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes/ AP)

Montreal - Police in eastern Canada arrested an escaped inmate on Sunday and surrounded the second after the pair broke out of a Quebec jail and hijacked a helicopter to escape.

Quebec Provincial Police said on Twitter that they had located Danny Provencal and had set up a security perimeter around him.

An hour earlier, officers said they had detained Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, the other escapee, along with two other suspects.

The police in the French-speaking province first announced that they responded to the incident at the Saint-Jerome jail, about 50km northwest of Montreal, around 2:20 pm (1820 GMT).

The helicopter was found an hour later with the pilot still on board and uninjured. It was about 85km northwest of the jail, in the Mont Tremblant area, Canadian media had said.

Radio Canada said Hudon-Barbeau is 36 and has ties to the Hell's Angels motorcycle club, which is considered an organised crime syndicate, while Provencal is 33.

Media reports suggested that the inmates had held a gun to the pilot's head. He was taken to a hospital and was being questioned.

- SAPA