New Delhi: A notorious French criminal managed to break free from prison in a filmy style, leaving the French authorities gasping at the audacity.


As per reports, Redoine Faid, who was serving a 25-year sentence for an armed robbery, used a helicopter to stage his prison-break in a fashion inspired by films like “Scarface”.

It is reportedly the second time he has been successful in fleeing from the jail, displaying his nerve. The French government who has been left red-faced at the incident has cited possible security failings.

Here is how he executed his prison-break:

As described in foreign media reports, Faid had his two accomplices ready who used smoke bombs to disrupt vision and used angle grinders to break into prison. They had also kept a helicopter ready. They barged right up to where Faid was and whisked him to a waiting helicopter.

The accomplices reportedly hijacked a helicopter from a flight school and forced the instructor to take the helicopter to the prison and asked him to keep hovering above the prison yard.

The two men were allegedly dressed in black and were equipped with assault rifles. They first set off the smoke bombs, then using some power tools broke into the jail’s visiting room where Faid was talking to his brother. Jail wardens who were reportedly unarmed fled and raised an alarm. But the escapees were too fast to be nabbed. Within ten minutes the prisoner was gone.

The escapees kept changing vehicles along their runaway. The first one, the helicopter was found in suburbs about 60 km away from the prison and the pilot was found in a state of shock. The next vehicle that they used was apparently a car which was found torched in a shopping mall carpark.

 Helicopter used by Faid in his runaway was found 60 Kms far from the prison./ IMAGE: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

 Car used by Faid was found torched / IMAGE: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

In the year 2013 Faid had made his first jailbreak by using dynamites to blast his way out of the prison by holding the guards at gunpoint.

Faid has been in jail since 2011 for breaking his parole over past convictions for bank robberies and robbing a cash-in-transit vehicle. He was caught six weeks after his first break out.

Faid has authored two books about his delinquent youth and rise as a criminal in the Paris suburbs.

His criminal life, as he writes, is inspired by gangster films like Scarface and Heat.