A Danish man who murdered and dismembered a female journalist touring his homemade submarine in 2017 was recaptured after attempting to break out of prison while allegedly armed with a bomb.
Peter Madsen escaped from Herstedvester prison, located in a suburb of Copenhagen, after threatening guards with an explosive device, and also possibly a “pistol-like object,” local media reported. Security forces cornered him after he fled several hundred meters from the prison. A photograph shows the convicted murderer leaning against a fence as two security personnel, wearing helmets and body armor, lie on the ground as they point their weapons at him. Snipers, a bomb squad and police dogs arrived on site, according to reports.
Police confirmed that they were responding to an attempted prison break and had cordoned off the area.
After a standoff, law enforcement personnel arrested Madsen, who was reportedly wearing a suspicious belt-like object believed to be an explosive device. The Danish inventor had previously been placed in solitary confinement after prison officials suspected he was plotting an escape, according to Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet daily.
Madsen received life in prison in 2018 after being found guilty for the murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall. The Dane purportedly killed the woman a year earlier while she was touring a submarine he had made. Madsen is believed to have stabbed Wall and then dismembered her. The body parts were later recovered in the waters south of Copenhagen.
